Canadian Criminal Law/Offences/Intimidation of a Justice System Participant

Intimidation of a Justice System Participant
s. 423.1 of the Crim. Code
Election / Plea
Crown Election	Indictable
Jurisdiction	Prov. Court SC Judge + PI (I) SC Jury + PI (I) (536(2))
Indictable Dispositions
Maximum	14 years jail
References
Offence Elements Sentence Principles Sentence Digests

Legislation

Intimidation of a justice system participant or a journalist
423.1 (1) No person shall, without lawful authority, engage in conduct referred to in subsection (2) with the intent to provoke a state of fear in

(a) a group of persons or the general public in order to impede the administration of criminal justice;

(b) a justice system participant in order to impede him or her in the performance of his or her duties; or

(c) a journalist in order to impede him or her in the transmission to the public of information in relation to a criminal organization.

Prohibited conduct
(2) [Repealed, 2015, c. 13, s. 12]

...

– CCC

Proof of Offence

1. identity of accused
2. date and time of incident
3. jurisdiction (incl. region and province)
4. do the prohibited conduct (does not need to be successful in objective)
5. the accused knew the victim was of the prohibited class of people
6. the conduct was intended to provoked a state of fear in the prohibited group in order to impede them in some aspect of their conduct.
7. no lawful authority

Interpretation

An accused need only foresee that, by conveying a threat of violence to a justice system participant, a form of intimidation was likely to result sufficient to impede the official in the general performance of his or her duties..

Justice System Participant

s. 2 ...
“justice system participant” means

(a) a member of the Senate, of the House of Commons, of a legislative assembly or of a municipal council, and

(b) a person who plays a role in the administration of criminal justice, including

(i) the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness and a Minister responsible for policing in a province,

(ii) a prosecutor, a lawyer, a member of the Chambre des notaires du Québec and an officer of a court,

(iii) a judge and a justice,

(iv) a juror and a person who is summoned as a juror,

(v) an informant, a prospective witness, a witness under subpoena and a witness who has testified,

(vi) a peace officer within the meaning of any of paragraphs (b), (c), (d), (e) and (g) of the definition “peace officer”,

(vii) a civilian employee of a police force,

(viii) a person employed in the administration of a court,

(viii.1) a public officer within the meaning of subsection 25.1(1) and a person acting at the direction of such an officer,

(ix) an employee of the Canada Revenue Agency who is involved in the investigation of an offence under an Act of Parliament,

(ix.1) an employee of the Canada Border Services Agency who is involved in the investigation of an offence under an Act of Parliament,

(x) an employee of a federal or provincial correctional service, a parole supervisor and any other person who is involved in the administration of a sentence under the supervision of such a correctional service and a person who conducts disciplinary hearings under the Corrections and Conditional Release Act, and

(xi) an employee and a member of the National Parole Board and of a provincial parole board;

– CCC

Threatening to Engage

The crown must prove that the accused could foresee that by conveying a threat of violence, intimidation sufficient to impede the person's performance in their duties would result.

Cases

1. R. v. Cluney, 2008 SKQB 240