LIABILITY

Liability for costs

61. (1) The owner and any person entitled to possession of any thing the movement of which is restricted or prohibited under this Act, or of any thing that is seized, detained, recalled, forfeited or disposed of under this Act, are jointly and severally, or solidarily, liable for all the costs relating to the restriction, prohibition, seizure, detention, recall, forfeiture or disposition incurred by Her Majesty in right of Canada in excess of the net proceeds of disposition, if any.

Debt due to Her Majesty

(2) The costs referred to in subsection (1) are debts due to Her Majesty and proceedings to recover them may be instituted in a court of competent jurisdiction at any time within five years after the time they were incurred.

Her Majesty or Agency not liable

62. Her Majesty or the Agency is not liable for any costs, loss or damage resulting from a person being required to do anything to comply with this Act or the regulations.

Protection from civil proceeding or from prosecution

63. Despite any other Act of Parliament, no civil or criminal proceedings lie against Her Majesty, the Agency or any person acting on behalf or under the direction of the Agency for the disclosure in good faith of any information or for any consequences that flow from that disclosure.

GENERAL

Assistance of peace officer

64. A peace officer shall provide any assistance that an inspector or officer may request for the purpose of administering or enforcing any Act mentioned in subsection 11(1).

Certificates

65. The form of certificates issued under this Act shall be established by the President.

REGULATIONS

Regulations

66. The Governor in Council may make regulations for carrying out the purposes and provisions of this Act and, without limiting the generality of the foregoing, may make regulations

    (a) requiring persons to keep and provide to the Agency information, records, books of account or other documents in respect of regulated products and activities in respect of which the Acts mentioned in subsection 11(1) apply;

    (b) respecting the information, records, books of account or other documents to be kept under paragraph (a) and the period of time they are to be retained;

    (c) respecting electronic means to create, collect, receive, store, transfer, distribute, publish or otherwise deal with documents or information referred to in or required to be kept by any Act mentioned in subsection 11(1), including regulations

      (i) specifying terms and conditions under which the electronic means may be used and the means that may be used to electronically sign the documents or authenticate them, and

      (ii) respecting the admissibility as evidence of any document created or received using electronic means;

    (d) respecting the functions and duties of inspectors, analysts, graders and officers;

    (e) respecting the inspection of places, including conveyances, and of regulated products and other things and the stopping of conveyances;

    (f) respecting the taking of samples, the conducting of tests and the making of analyses;

    (g) respecting the restriction or prohibition of the movement of regulated products;

    (h) respecting the seizure and forfeiture of regulated products and other things under this Act;

    (i) respecting the detention, storage, treatment, quarantine, removal and transportation of regulated products and other things seized under this Act;

    (j) establishing criteria and procedures for reinspections;

    (k) respecting the grading of regulated products;

    (l) governing the collection of information and statistics, the publication of studies and the conduct of surveys on any matter related to any Act mentioned in subsection 11(1) or its regulations;

    (m) establishing a mechanism for dealing with complaints from employees of the Agency and members of the public relating to public health and safety with respect to regulated products; and

    (n) prescribing anything that is to be prescribed under this Act.

Incorporation by reference of externally produced material

67. (1) A regulation may incorporate by reference material produced by a person or body, other than the Agency or the Department of Health, including

    (a) an organization established for the purpose of writing standards;

    (b) an industrial or trade organization; and

    (c) a government, government agency or international body.

Reproduced or translated material

(2) A regulation may incorporate by reference material that the Agency or the Department of Health reproduces or translates from material produced by the other person or body

    (a) with any adaptations of form and reference that will facilitate the incorporation of the material in the regulation; or

    (b) in a form that sets out only the parts of the material that apply for the purposes of the regulation.

Jointly produced material

(3) A regulation may incorporate by reference material that the Agency or the Department of Health produces jointly with another government or government agency for the purpose of harmonizing the regulation with other laws.

Internally produced standards

(4) A regulation may incorporate by reference technical or explanatory material that the Agency or the Department of Health produces, such as

    (a) specifications, classifications, illustrations, graphs and other information of a technical nature; and

    (b) test methods, procedures, operational standards, safety standards and performance standards of a technical nature.

Incorporation as amended from time to time

(5) A regulation may incorporate by reference material as amended from time to time.

Incorporated material is not a regulation

(6) Material that is incorporated by reference in a regulation is not a regulation for the purposes of the Statutory Instruments Act.

Defence

68. No person may be convicted of an offence or subjected to a penalty for the contravention of a provision of a regulation that incorporates material by reference, unless it is proved that, at the time of the alleged contravention,

    (a) the material was reasonably accessible to the person;

    (b) reasonable steps had been taken to ensure that the material was accessible to persons likely to be affected by the regulation; or

    (c) the material had been published in the Canada Gazette.

OFFENCES AND PUNISHMENT

Forging, etc., of inspection certificates

69. No person shall forge, alter or tamper with an inspection certificate.

Obstruction

70. No person shall obstruct or interfere with any person who is exercising any powers or carrying out any functions or duties under an Act mentioned in subsection 11(1) or with any person acting under the authority of such a person.

False statements

71. No person shall make any false or misleading statement to any person who is exercising any powers or carrying out any functions or duties under an Act mentioned in subsection 11(1) or to any person acting under the authority of such a person.

False records

72. No person shall produce for examination or copying by any person who is exercising any powers or carrying out any functions or duties under an Act mentioned in subsection 11(1), or by any person acting under the authority of such a person, any record, book of account or other document, or any electronic data, that the person knows contains false or misleading information.

Interference

73. Except as authorized by an inspector, no person shall remove, alter or interfere in any way with any thing seized and detained under this Act or the movement of which is restricted or prohibited under this Act.

Offences

74. Every person who fails to comply with a notice sent to the person under section 42 or 49 or who contravenes any of sections 69 to 73 or any provision of the regulations is guilty of an offence and liable

    (a) on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding $50,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to both; or

    (b) on conviction on indictment to a fine not exceeding $250,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years or to both.

Continuing offences

75. A contravention of this Act or the regulations that is committed or continued on more than one day is deemed to constitute a separate offence for each day on which the contravention is committed or continued.

Offences by corporate officers, etc.

76. If a corporation commits an offence under this Act, any officer, director, agent or mandatary of the corporation who directed, authorized, assented to, acquiesced in or participated in the commission of the offence is a party to and guilty of the offence and is liable on conviction to the punishment provided for the offence, whether or not the corporation has been prosecuted.

Offences by employees, agents or mandataries

77. In any prosecution for an offence under this Act, it is sufficient proof of the offence to establish that it was committed by an employee, agent or mandatary of the accused, whether or not the employee, agent or mandatary is identified or has been prosecuted for the offence, unless the accused establishes that the accused exercised all due diligence to prevent the commission of the offence.

Place of trial

78. A prosecution for an offence under this Act may be instituted, heard and determined in the place where

    (a) the offence was committed or the subject-matter of the prosecution arose;

    (b) the accused was apprehended; or

    (c) the accused happens to be, or is carrying on business.

Additional fine

79. A court that convicts a person for an offence under this Act may, if satisfied that the person acquired monetary benefits or that monetary benefits accrued to the person as a result of committing the offence, order the person to pay an additional fine above the maximum amount of any fine that may otherwise be imposed, in an amount equal to the court's finding of the amount of those monetary benefits.

Orders of court

80. If a person is convicted of an offence under this Act, the convicting court may, in addition to any punishment imposed, and having regard to the nature of the offence and the circumstances surrounding its commission, make an order having any or all of the following effects:

    (a) prohibiting the person from doing any act or engaging in any activity that may, in the opinion of the court, result in the continuation or repetition of the offence;

    (b) directing the person to compensate the Agency, in whole or in part, for the cost of any remedial or preventive action taken by or on behalf of the Agency as a result of the commission of the offence;

    (c) directing the person to perform community service in accordance with any conditions that may be specified in the order;

    (d) requiring the person to comply with any other conditions that the court considers appropriate for securing the person's good conduct and for preventing the person from repeating the offence or committing other offences;

    (e) directing the person to provide security in a form and in an amount satisfactory to the court for the purpose of ensuring compliance with any prohibition, direction or requirement mentioned in this section; and

    (f) directing the person to submit to the Agency, on application by the Agency within three years after the date of the conviction, any information respecting the activities of the person that the court considers appropriate in the circumstances.

Suspended sentence

81. (1) If a person is convicted of an offence under this Act and the court suspends the passing of sentence under paragraph 731(1)(a) of the Criminal Code, the court may, in addition to making a probation order under that paragraph, make an order directing the person to comply with any prohibition, direction or requirement mentioned in section 80.

Imposition of sentence

(2) If a person whose sentence has been suspended fails to comply with an order made under subsection (1) or is convicted, within three years after the day on which the order was made, of another offence under this Act, the court may, on the application of the Attorney General of Canada, impose any sentence that could have been imposed if the passing of sentence had not been suspended.

Contraven-
tion of order

82. Every person convicted of an offence under this Act who subsequently contravenes an order made under section 80 or 81 is

    (a) guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction and liable to a punishment not exceeding the maximum punishment to which a person is liable on summary conviction for the original offence; or

    (b) guilty of an indictable offence and liable to a punishment not exceeding the maximum punishment to which a person is liable on conviction on indictment for the original offence.

Limitation period

83. No proceedings by way of summary conviction in respect of an offence under this Act may be instituted more than two years after the time when the subject-matter of the proceedings arose.

Publication of facts of offence

84. If a person is convicted of an offence under this Act, the Agency may publish the facts of the offence and recover the costs of publication from the person.

Recovery of fines

85. If a person is convicted of an offence under this Act and a fine that is imposed as punishment is not paid when required, the prosecutor may, by filing the conviction, enter as a judgment the amount of the fine and costs, if any, in the superior court of the province in which the trial was held, and the judgment is enforceable against the convicted person in the same manner as if it were a judgment obtained by Her Majesty in right of Canada against the person in that court in civil proceedings.

Debt due to Her Majesty

86. (1) If the court makes an order under section 80 or 81 directing a person to pay an amount of money or the Agency pays publication costs under section 84, the amount and any interest payable on it constitute a debt due to Her Majesty and may be recovered as such in a court of competent jurisdiction.

Limitation on recovery

(2) A debt due to Her Majesty under this section may be recovered at any time within the five-year period following the time when the debt became due.