Under Canadian criminal law, who brings criminal charges against another person?

In Canada, a criminal act is seen as a crime against all of Canadian society, since all people have an interest in seeing that the rule of law is upheld. Therefore, an individual who has been the victim of a crime does not have to handle the charge against the wrongdoer.

In Canada, the state brings the charge. The state is represented by a lawyer called a Crown prosecutor, usually employed by the province. Although we usually see the Crown as presenting the evidence against the accused, the Crown's role in the courts is actually to bring all the facts of the case into evidence. That is, the Crown's role as an agent of the state is to get to the truth about the crime on behalf of society, not simply to prove one particular person guilty.

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October 1996

More Criminal Code FAQs:

• General
• Joyriding
• Shoplifting

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