CORNWALL CRIMINAL LAWYERS

Operating a vehicle while impaired by alcohol or drugs is illegal as is operating a vehicle with amounts of alcohol or drugs in your blood that are over the legal limits of 80+ mg of alcohol in 100 ml of blood. The penalties for drinking and driving offences are severe and include fines, a prohibition on driving and driver’s licence suspension, and possibly jail. (If it’s not your first conviction for one of these offences, then definitely jail.)

Related Content

• Charged with a DUI in Cornwall?
• Charged with Drinking and Driving in Cornwall: Your Charter Rights
• Facing a Second DUI Conviction in Cornwall
• Potential Impact of a DUI Conviction on Insurance Rates in Cornwall

In Canadian criminal law, an assault is the act of applying force intentionally, directly or indirectly, to another person without that person’s consent. It is also assault if you accost or impede another person, or beg, while openly carrying a weapon or an imitation weapon.

The offence of “Uttering Threats” is committed when someone knowingly utters, conveys or causes any person to receive a threat: to cause death or bodily harm; to burn destroy or damage property; or, to kill poison or injure an animal belonging to any person.

There are many types of assault including:

• Simple Assault
• Aggravated Assault
• Assault with a Weapon
• Assault Causing Bodily Harm
• Sexual Assault
• Sexual Assault with a Weapon/Threats/Bodily Harm
• Aggravated Sexual Assault
• Assaulting a Police Officer

The penalties will be dependent on the type and severity of the assault.

Domestic assault is the term often used to describe an assault against an intimate partner or family member. However, it is not an actual term found in the Criminal Code. Depending on the facts of the particular case, the charge could be one of the types of assault listed above, for example simple assault or aggravated assault. Regardless of which type of assault charge results from a situation of domestic violence, it will be considered to be a particularly serious occurrence of that type of assault because of the “breach of trust” that occurs when there is violence in such close and dependant relationships. The penalties vary depending upon the seriousness of the assault, will often include weapons prohibitions, and at the high end can include jail.

Related Content

• Facing a Domestic Assault Charge in Cornwall

Sex assault is an assault characterized by sexual actions that occur without the victim’s consent, for example, unwanted sexual touching, kissing, groping or intercourse. The penalties are very severe and include registering in and reporting to national and provincial sex offender registries.

Related Content

• CASE STUDY: Sexual Assault x2 in Eastern Ontario

Internet crime, sometimes called cybercrime, is crime that occurs through the use of the internet and social media. Some examples of internet crime include child luring, impersonation, identity theft, cyber-bullying, child pornography and revenge porn. As the types of crimes that can occur online can vary widely, so do the penalties.

Related Content

• Behind the Scenes of Internet Sex Crime Charges in Cornwall
• Distribution of Intimate Images (a.k.a. “Revenge Porn)

Child sex assault is not a separate offence in the Criminal Code; instead, it is described within the offence of sex assault (see “Sex assault” above) and is defined as a sexual assault on a person under the age of 16. Other related sexual offences involving children include, sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching, sexual exploitation, bestiality in presence of or by a child, and luring a child. The penalties are, without exception, very severe and include mandatory jail sentences and registering in and reporting to national and provincial sex offender registries.

For some offences some people who get arrested will not simply be released from the station after being processed. If you are one of these people you will instead be held in jail to await a bail hearing. Your bail hearing will determine if you can be released, or if you should remain in jail during the time your case is being processed by the criminal justice system. Your bail hearing will not be about your innocence or guilt; it will just be able whether or not you will be let out of jail. If you are not successful at your bail hearing you will have to stay in jail—possibly for months—while your case is working its way through the court process, rather than being able to deal with your case “from the outside.”

In the Criminal Code, this offence is actually called “Dangerous Operation.” This offence occurs when someone operates a vehicle in a manner that is dangerous to the public. This definition is admittedly very broad, but the charge is meant to apply to cases of particularly dangerous bad driving and it is a serious matter to be charged with this offence. The penalties are severe and can include a prohibition on driving and even jail.

Related Content

• CASE STUDY: Acquittal of Dangerous Operation of a Motor Vehicle

Driving while prohibited is the criminal offence of driving while you are under a court order not to drive because you were convicted of a previous criminal offence that carries a driving prohibition as one of its penalties, for example a DUI. The penalties for this offence usually include jail and additional periods of prohibition on driving.

Drug charges would involve the supplying, importing, exporting, growing, manufacturing, trafficking or possessing of those substances listed in the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA). The CDSA lists both hard and soft drugs, including heroin, cocaine, “magic mushrooms,” marijuana (in quantities above a certain amount) as well as other substances including precursors to listed drugs. Penalties vary depending on the type and amount of drugs as well as other surrounding circumstances. At the high end, the penalties include lengthy jail sentences. If you have a drug charge on your criminal record, you will not be able to enter or even transit through the U.S.

Related Content

• Drug Charges in Cornwall: What to Do
• Options for Dealing with Drug Charges in Cornwall

In criminal law, the term “breach” refers to a violation of a condition in a probation order or in a pre-trial release (such as bail or a Promise to Appear with an undertaking). The breach is itself an additional criminal offence and usually results in serious penalties, often including jail.

Weapons offences include using firearms to harm others, possessing illegal firearms and unsafe handling of legally owned firearms. You may, in some circumstances, also be charged for having violently used an object other than a firearm, including an object that may have a perfectly legal use, such as a kitchen knife. Additionally, some objects are actually classified as prohibited weapons, as for example brass knuckles or flick knives. Convictions for weapons charges result in severe penalties (although recent amendments to the law have reduced the severity somewhat).

Break and enter is the crime of breaking and entering into a place with an intent to commit an indictable offence or actually committing an indictable offence in the place. It is always considered a serious offence regardless of the type of place broken into, but if the break and enter is committed in relation to a dwelling-house, the person will be liable to imprisonment for life. Other property offences include arson, burglary, vandalism, theft of personal property, and motor vehicle theft. The penalties for these other offences will vary according to the type, severity and circumstances of the offence.

In Canada, criminal offences committed by young people between the ages of 12 and 18, are dealt with under the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA). While the offences with which young people in this age group can be charged are the same Criminal Code offences as for adults, the processes of the criminal justice system and the potential consequences, are different for young people.