Canadians will soon have more power to make a citizen’s arrest after they catch someone committing a crime, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson announced Wednesday.
Bill C-26, the Citizen’s Arrest and Self-Defence Act, is expected to receive royal assent on Thursday. The new legislation will allow Canadians to make a citizen’s arrest within a “reasonable amount” of time after they’ve witnessed a crime in progress.
Currently, a citizen’s arrest is only legal if the suspect is caught red-handed.
Nicholson announced the changes at a news conference near the Lucky Moose food mart in Toronto’s Chinatown, where owner David Chen infamously chased down and tied up a serial shoplifter in 2009, only to be arrested and charged himself.
The case made headlines across the country and Chen was eventually acquitted.
“Our government is committed to putting the real criminals behind bars,” Nicholson said in a statement. “Canadians want to know that they are able to protect themselves against criminal acts and that the justice system is behind them, not against them.”
Nicholson said the current legislation, which allows Canadians to make a citizen’s arrest only if the catch someone “actively engaged in a criminal offence on or in relation to one’s property” is too restricting.
Nicholson stressed that the government does not condone vigilantism and that a citizen’s arrest will only be legal if it’s not feasible for a police officer to make an arrest.
“The police will continue to be Canada’s first and foremost criminal law enforcement body,” a news release from Nicholson’s office said.
The new legislation will also simplify the definitions of “self-defence” and “defence of property” in the Criminal Code, after police and prosecutors complained that they are complex and confusing.
With files from The Canadian Press
