Subject to some exceptions, only a court of competent jurisdiction in a Province where the offence is alleged to have been committed, presides over criminal offences. Although subsection 478(1) provides that a court in a Province shall not try an offence committed entirely in another Province, by subsection (3) an accused person may plead guilty before a court in a different Province and be sentenced in that location provided the Attorney General of the Province having jurisdiction consents and provided the offence is not one listed in section 469 of the Code.
Section 479 of the Code permits movement of charges from one jurisdiction within the province to another jurisdiction within the same province provided the accused agrees to plead guilty to the charge or charges and the Attorney General consents to the transfer. This section permits an accused to plead guilty to an offence, provided that offence is not one listed in section 469 of the Code, before a Judge within the province where the offence was committed, rather than pleading guilty in the region of the province having natural jurisdiction over the offender.
Only in rare and specified instances is a Canadian court permitted to exercise jurisdiction over offences committed entirely outside of Canada. Not surprisingly, these offences generally deal with crimes against humanity, crimes related to nuclear material, war crimes and offences such as those committed on aircraft or vessels that happen to be outside the Canadian jurisdiction at the time of the alleged offence. The old common-law rule that “crime is local” is still generally maintained.
The Code applies generally to offences committed in the territorial seas or internal waters of Canada. Mostly our local venues are broken down into “county” jurisdictions. So a crime committed in York County will be tried in York County unless the court orders a change of venue pursuant to section 599 of the Code.
The “venue” of a trial is where the trial would normally be held based upon where the crime was alleged to be committed unless a court orders the trial to be held in a territorial division in the same province other than that in which the offence would otherwise be tried. Orders for change of venue are based upon the court finding that the change of venue “appears expedient to the ends of Justice”.
Section 7 of the Code section deals with some circumstances where offences may be tried in Canada although the act(s) may have been committed outside of Canada. Subsection 7(4.1) could provide some relief for accused persons facing sexual offences both in Canada and other countries. This subsection extends jurisdiction in our Canadian courts to cover a number of sexual offences that often have international law implications. If for example, an accused is alleged to have sexually assaulted a young person under the age of fourteen years in both Canada and the United States, he may plead guilty in Canada to committing offences in both jurisdictions. Once penalized in Canada for his actions in both countries a valid argument can be made that he ought not to be further punished in the foreign country because he has been punished in Canada for those same acts.
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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