Criminal Code (Canada)

The Criminal Code (French: Code criminel) is a law of the Parliament of Canada that codifies most, but not all, criminal offences and principles of criminal procedure in Canada. Its long title is An Act respecting the Criminal Law (French: Loi concernant le droit criminel). It is indexed in the Revised Statutes of Canada, 1985 as chapter number C-46. In legal reports, it is sometimes abbreviated as Cr.C. (French: C.cr.) or CC.

Section 91(27) of the Constitution Act, 1867 establishes that the Parliament of Canada has sole jurisdiction over criminal law. Accordingly, the Criminal Code applies to the entirety of the country, meaning that in Canada, all crimes which are defined under the Criminal Code are federal crimes and can be prosecuted anywhere they occur in or out of the country. Additionally, with one major exception for treason which has a statute of limitations of three years, there is no statute of limitations for the prosecution of indictable offences and such prosecutions may be commenced at any time. Summary offences, on the other hand, have a statute of limitations of 12 months.

The Criminal Code divides the crimes it codifies into major categories, including crimes against public order, crimes involving firearms and weapons, crimes against the administration of law and justice, sexual offences, crimes against public morals, disorderly conduct, crimes against the privacy of communications, crimes involving disorderly houses, gaming, and betting, crimes against the person and reputation, crimes against property rights, crimes involving fraud, criminal mischief and criminal damage, crimes against currencies, and attempts, conspiracies, and accessories. A category concerning terrorism was added in 2001 with the Anti-terrorism Act and a category dealing with motor vehicle and "conveyance" crimes was added in 2018.

The Criminal Code contains some defences, but most are part of the common law rather than statute. Important Canadian criminal laws not forming part of the Code include the Firearms Act, the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, the Canada Evidence Act, the Food and Drugs Act, the Youth Criminal Justice Act, the Customs Act, and the Contraventions Act. The Code underwent a major revision in 1954, which came into force in April 1955, but nonetheless remains the fundamental criminal law of Canada, despite several initiatives at major reform or the enactment of a new criminal code entirely. In 2018, and later 2019, the Trudeau government made a large revision to the Code which repealed numerous unconstitutional or archaic offences that had remained in it up to that point.

One of the conveniences of the Criminal Code was that it constituted the principle that no person could be convicted of a crime unless otherwise specifically outlined and stated in a statute. This legal document has played a major part in Canada's history and has also helped form other legal acts and laws, for example, the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.