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| Patrick Ducharme |
Private citizens who witness a breach of the peace are justified in preventing its continuation or renewal and may arrest the person breaching the peace for the purposes of surrendering that person to a peace officer.1 The common law concept of “breach of the peace” is not statutorily defined. It is usually an act or actions that result in actual or threatened harm to another person. Consider sections 30 and 31 of the Code:
30: Everyone who witnesses a breach of the peace is justified in interfering to prevent the continuance or renewal thereof and may detain any person who commits or is about to join in or to renew the breach of the peace, for the purpose of giving him into the custody of a peace officer, if he uses no more force than is reasonably necessary to prevent the continuance or renewal of the breach of the peace or than is reasonably proportioned to the danger to be apprehended from the continuance or renewal of the breach of the peace.
31: Every peace officer who witnesses a breach of the peace and everyone who lawfully assists the peace officer is justified in arresting any person whom he finds committing the breach of the peace or who, on reasonable grounds, the peace officer believes is about to join in or renew the breach of the peace.
Sections 27 and 32 provide for the use of force to prevent serious offences and suppress riots.
The above is the an excerpt of Patrick J Ducharme's book, Canadian Criminal Procedure, available at Amazon or in bulk through MedicaLegal Publishing along with Criminal Trial Strategies.
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