Robbery Lawyers in Canada

The Crown is the prosecutor. A person charged with an offence is presumed innocent until proven guilty, so the Crown is the side that has to prove the charge. That presumption is part of section 11(d) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Section 343 says a person commits robbery who does any one of four things. Under paragraph (a), the person steals, and for the purpose of extorting whatever is stolen or to prevent or overcome resistance to the stealing, uses violence or threats of violence to a person or property. Under paragraph (b), the person steals from any person and, at the time or immediately before or after, wounds, beats, strikes or uses any personal violence to that person. Under paragraph (c), the person assaults any person with intent to steal from them. Under paragraph (d), the person steals from any person while armed with an offensive weapon or an imitation of one.

Each route starts with stealing or an intent to steal, so the idea of theft is part of every robbery charge. Section 322 says a person commits theft who fraudulently and without colour of right takes, or fraudulently and without colour of right converts, anything, with one of the intents the section lists. The wording of section 343 does not mention the value of the property.

Paragraph (c) uses the word assault. Under section 265, a person commits an assault when, without the consent of another person, they apply force intentionally to that other person, directly or indirectly. The section also covers an attempt or a threat, by an act or a gesture, to apply force.

Paragraph (d) uses the words offensive weapon. Section 2 says an offensive weapon has the same meaning as weapon. A weapon is any thing used, designed to be used or intended for use in causing death or injury to any person, or for the purpose of threatening or intimidating any person. It includes a firearm. Which route the Crown relies on is part of the case.

A person can also be a party to an offence without being the one who carried it out. Section 21(1) says a person is a party to an offence who actually commits it, who does or omits to do anything for the purpose of aiding any person to commit it, or who abets any person in committing it.

Section 344(1)(b) makes robbery an indictable offence liable to imprisonment for life in any case not covered by the firearm rule. Life imprisonment is the maximum. It is a ceiling the law allows, and it does not say what sentence a court would give in any case.

Section 344(1)(a) sets a minimum punishment in two situations. The first is where a restricted firearm or prohibited firearm is used in the commission of the offence. The second is where any firearm is used and the offence is committed for the benefit of, at the direction of, or in association with, a criminal organization. In those cases the section sets life imprisonment and a minimum punishment of five years for a first offence and seven years for a second or subsequent offence.

A conviction can bring a firearms and weapons prohibition. Section 109(1)(a) applies to an indictable offence in the commission of which violence against a person was used, threatened or attempted, and for which the person may be sentenced to imprisonment for ten years or more. Robbery carries up to life. Where section 109 applies, the court shall make an order prohibiting the person from possessing firearms, weapons and ammunition for the period that the section sets.

Section 36 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act says a permanent resident or foreign national is inadmissible on grounds of serious criminality for having been convicted in Canada of an offence under an Act of Parliament punishable by a maximum term of imprisonment of at least 10 years. Whether that applies to a particular person is a question for a lawyer who practises immigration law.

Whether a defence is open in a particular case depends on the evidence. The words of section 343 show where the questions lie. One is whether the Crown can show that there was a stealing at all. Section 322 uses the words fraudulently and without colour of right, and a person who takes property under a claim of right may raise a question about those words. Another is whether the violence, threat, assault or weapon is connected to the stealing in the way the paragraph describes. Another is who took part, and in what role, which is where section 21 comes in. A lawyer can explain how courts have applied these words.

Charter rights apply from the start. Section 10 gives everyone on arrest or detention the right to be informed promptly of the reasons and the right to retain and instruct counsel without delay and to be informed of that right. Section 9 gives everyone the right not to be arbitrarily detained or imprisoned. Section 8 gives everyone the right to be secure against unreasonable search or seizure.

Section 11(b) gives a person charged with an offence the right to be tried within a reasonable time. Under section 24(2), evidence obtained in a manner that infringed Charter rights is excluded if admitting it would bring the administration of justice into disrepute. Whether a right was infringed, and what follows, is for the court to decide on the facts.

In Ontario, every charge under the Criminal Code starts in the Ontario Court of Justice, and about 95% of charges are completed there. The Superior Court of Justice can try any indictable offence but generally tries only the most serious ones. The court's own description names murder, manslaughter, serious violent offences such as aggravated assault and sexual assault, firearm offences, robberies, home invasions, criminal organization offences and drug trafficking. Trials in that court are by a judge alone or with a jury.

When a release decision is made, section 515 says the justice shall make a release order without conditions unless the prosecutor shows cause why detention in custody is justified or why another order should be made. Section 493.1 says the decision gives primary consideration to release at the earliest reasonable opportunity and on the least onerous conditions.

After a conviction on indictment, an appeal goes to the court of appeal. A person may appeal as of right on a question of law alone. An appeal on a question of fact, or of mixed law and fact, needs leave. So does an appeal against sentence, unless the sentence is one fixed by law.

Legal Aid Ontario may pay for a lawyer if the person qualifies and is charged with a crime that could mean jail on conviction, or is 12 to 17 and charged under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. Duty counsel is a lawyer at the courthouse for that day. For people who qualify and have no lawyer, duty counsel can advise on rights, ask to delay a court date, act at a bail hearing, help with a guilty plea, speak at sentencing, and meet the Crown.

A legal aid certificate pays a roster lawyer, one approved to take legal aid clients, for the length of the criminal case. Applications are online or by phone at 1-800-668-8258.

The Law Society of Ontario keeps a public Lawyer and Paralegal Directory, which can be used to look up a lawyer. The Ontario lawyers on this site are listed by city. Nothing on this page ranks or recommends any of them.