Bill C-28

If you have any questions or comments regarding the accessibility of this publication, please contact us at accessible@parl.gc.ca.

Bilingual view XML PDF

SUMMARY
Criminal Code
EXPLANATORY NOTES

First Session, Forty-fourth Parliament,

70-71 Elizabeth II, 2021-2022

HOUSE OF COMMONS OF CANADA

BILL C-28
An Act to amend the Criminal Code (self-induced extreme intoxication)

FIRST READING, June 17, 2022

MINISTER OF JUSTICE

91101

SUMMARY

This enactment amends the Criminal Code to provide for criminal liability for violent crimes of general intent committed by a person while in a state of negligent self-induced extreme intoxication.

Available on the House of Commons website at the following address:

www.ourcommons.ca

1st Session, 44th Parliament,

70-71 Elizabeth II, 2021-2022

HOUSE OF COMMONS OF CANADA

BILL C-28

An Act to amend the Criminal Code (self-induced extreme intoxication)

Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and House of Commons of Canada, enacts as follows:

R.‍S.‍, c. C-46

Criminal Code

1995, c. 32, s. 1

1 Section 33.‍1 of the Criminal Code and the heading before it are replaced by the following:

Self-induced Insertion start Extreme Insertion end Intoxication

Offences of violence by negligence

33.‍1 (1) A Insertion start person who Insertion end , by reason of self-induced Insertion start extreme Insertion end intoxication, Insertion start lacks Insertion end the general intent or voluntariness Insertion start ordinarily Insertion end required to commit an offence referred to in subsection (3), Insertion start nonetheless commits Insertion end the offence Insertion start if Insertion end

Start of inserted block
(a) all the other elements of the offence are present; and
(b) before they were in a state of extreme intoxication, they departed markedly from the standard of care expected of a reasonable person in the circumstances with respect to the consumption of intoxicating substances.
End of inserted block

Marked departure — foreseeability of risk and other circumstances

(2) For the purposes of determining whether the person departed markedly from the standard of care, the court must consider the objective foreseeability of the risk that the consumption of the intoxicating substances could cause extreme intoxication and lead the person to harm another person. The court must, in making the determination, also consider all relevant circumstances, including anything that the person did to avoid the risk.

Offences

(3) This section applies in respect of an offence under this Act or any other Act of Parliament that includes as an element an assault or any other interference or threat of interference by a person with the bodily integrity of another person.

Definition of extreme intoxication

(4) In this section, extreme intoxication means intoxication that renders a person unaware of, or incapable of consciously controlling, their behaviour.

Published under authority of the Speaker of the House of Commons

EXPLANATORY NOTES

Criminal Code

Clause 1: Existing text of section 33.‍1 and the heading before it:

Self-induced Intoxication

33.‍1 (1) It is not a defence to an offence referred to in subsection (3) that the accused, by reason of self-induced intoxication, lacked the general intent or the voluntariness required to commit the offence, where the accused departed markedly from the standard of care as described in subsection (2).

(2) For the purposes of this section, a person departs markedly from the standard of reasonable care generally recognized in Canadian society and is thereby criminally at fault where the person, while in a state of self-induced intoxication that renders the person unaware of, or incapable of consciously controlling, their behaviour, voluntarily or involuntarily interferes or threatens to interfere with the bodily integrity of another person.