Introduction

• Author: Stephen Coughlan
• Profession: Professor of Law. Dalhousie University
• Pages: 1-7

1

CHA PTER 1

INTRODUCTION

In this book, crim inal procedure will be t aken to mean the body of

rules and principles that govern the investigation, prosecution, and ad-

judication of any offence enacted by Parliament for which an accused

person would have a criminal record if found guilty by a court exercis-

ing juri sdiction under the Criminal Code.1 That is, it governs the pro-

cedural aspects relating to indictable and summary conviction offences

enacted by Parliament pursuant to its legislative authority in matters

of criminal l aw.

This def‌inition of t he subject excludes many procedural aspects of

penal law. For ex ample, crimi nal procedure does not include law that

1 Unless other wise indicated, al l statutory references in t his book are to the Cri m-

inal Code of Canad a, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-46 [Code]. All references to section s of

the Canadian Ch arter of Rights and Freedoms, Part I of the Con stitution Act, 1982,

being Schedule B t o the Canada Act 1982 (U.K.), 1982, c. 11 [Charter] will be

preceded by “Charter.” See Criminal Records Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-47, s. 3, which

refers to a convict ion of an offence under an Act of Parliament or a reg ulation

made under an Act of Parl iament. The procedure prescr ibed in the Code applies

to all indict able offences and all offences pun ishable on summary conv iction

that have bee n enacted by Parliament. Notw ithstanding the bro ad def‌inition of

this book’s scop e, the criminal jur isdiction of the Canad ian military i s excluded

from considerat ion here, but it should be noted that this inc ludes a distinctive

body of procedura l and evidentiary la w. Also excluded from con sideration is

crimin al procedure as it applies to young per sons under the Youth Criminal

Justice Act, S.C. 2002, c. 1. For dis cussion of the latter issue, s ee Nicholas Bala,

Youth Criminal Justice Law (Toronto: Irwin L aw, 2002).