This article is a simplified description, in simple terms, of the homicide law in Canada. For current law, see the Canadian Penal Code.
In Canada, criminally guilty manslaughter is murder, manslaughter, or infanticide. Homicide that does not fit into one of these categories is not a crime.
Infanticide It occurs when a female person causes the death of her newborn child when her mind is disturbed as a result of the effects of childbirth.
The maximum penalty for infanticide is five years in prison. There is no minimum sentence.
Involuntary manslaughter It occurs when a person causes the death of another through an illicit act but did not intend to kill the victim. A classic example of manslaughter is the scene of a punch that causes the victim to fall and hit his head against a curb, the latter impact causing death. There is a wrongful act, aggression, but there is no intention to cause death.
In certain circumstances, manslaughter can be found when deliberately fatal blows are inflicted as a result of a physical or mental shock to the system. In Canadian law, this concept is known as provocation. Legal provocation can reduce what might otherwise be the crime of murder to involuntary manslaughter.
In rare circumstances, the crime of murder may be reduced to involuntary manslaughter if the consumption of alcohol or other intoxicating substances has affected the mental processes of the perpetrator.
As a very general statement, it is correct to say that any criminally culpable homicide that does not constitute murder is homicide. This broad concept can capture factual situations other than those discussed earlier under this heading.
The maximum sentence for involuntary manslaughter is life imprisonment. Unless it is a firearm, there is no minimum sentence.
Murder occurs when a person intentionally causes the death of another or intentionally inflicts bodily harm that he or she knows is likely to cause death and does not act in the course of self-defense or defense of another as defined by law. The murder can be murder in the first degree or murder in the second degree.
Murder in the first degree occurs in the following circumstances:
• If the murder is planned and deliberate;
• If the victim is a law enforcement officer or prison guard;
• If the murder is caused in the course of a kidnapping, sexual assault or kidnapping;
• If the murder occurs in the course of criminal harassment of another (eg stalking);
• If the murder occurs in the course of a terrorist activity;
• If the murder is caused as part of the activities of a criminal organization;
• If the murder occurs in the course of intimidating a group of people or the general public, in order to obstruct the administration of justice, in the course of intimidating a participant of the justice system or in the course of intimidation to a journalist for the purpose of trying to dissuade that journalist from disseminating information about a criminal organization;
• Any murder, if the perpetrator has previously been convicted of murder.
The sentence for murder in the first degree is life in prison without parole for at least 25 years (there are different sentencing rules for persons under the age of 18).
Second degree murder is all murder that is not first degree murder. Generally speaking, second degree murder is deliberate murder that occurs without planning and does not involve any of the victims or circumstances listed above in first degree murder.
Sentence for second degree murder is life in prison without parole for at least ten years or any higher number between then and twenty-five years, as decided by a judge (there are different sentencing rules for persons under the age of 18).
