Self-Defense is one of the most controversial of all the possible law problems mostly because it is usually hard to define when it self defense and when not. In Canada self-defense is defined in the Canadian Criminal Code. In the common law tradition self-defense is the right for civilians acting on their own behalf to engage in violence for the sake of defending one’s own life or the lives of others. It can include the use of deadly force in some countries, but in Canada it must be not intended to cause death or grievous bodily harm, except for situations when it is caused under reasonable apprehension of death or grievous bodily harm from the violence with which the assault was originally made or with which the assailant pursues his purposes and if the assaulted person believes that he or she cannot otherwise preserve himself from death or grievous bodily harm. Mostly self-defense must be limited to the so called reasonable force and defining the reasonable force for a situation is the first problem. Even in Canada it differs from area to area. Mostly this term is defined as the minimal force required to prevent an assault from occurring. The term force includes not only direct force but also verbal de-escalation, posturing and removing yourself from potentially violent situation. If it comes to direct use of force the force must be limited only to stop the assault, it does not includes punishing the assailant or seeking revenge after the assault occurred. Also the type of assault is important, if you are assaulted with a firearm, you can use a firearm for self-defense. Everything can be different depending on the situation, so the best thing that we can recommend is to be aware of the self-defense limitations in your area.

Another type of self-defense is a defense o property still it is not very much supported by the Canadian Criminal Code. The Code provides following separate rules of law for the defense of property. Every person who is in possession of personal property, and every one lawfully assisting him, has the right to prevent a trespasser from taking it, or in taking it from another trespasser who has taken it, if during the taking he will not cause bodily harm to the trespasser. Still when the owner of property lays hands on it, a trespasser who tries to keep it or take it from owner or from person who is lawfully assisting the owner is viewed as committing an assault without justification or provocation. In that case the owner or every one who is lawfully assisting him is protected from criminal responsibility for defending that possession. Also the owner and a person who is lawfully assisting his is justified to use as much force as is necessary to prevent any person from forcibly breaking into or forcibly entering the owners dwelling-house without lawful authority. In all that case the force that can be used is limited to not more than necessary.

Worldwide Canada is considered to be one of the leading countries that support the global human rights movement. The history of Human Rights Law in Canada begins in the advent of the Canadian Bill of Rights, before that the human rights issues were usually regulated with single court cases and the verdicts of such cases were used to regulate similar situations. In 1938 by the decision of Reference re Alberta Statutes, the Supreme Court of Canada first recognized an implied bill of rights. The case revolved around an Albertan law that prohibited the press from criticizing the government. Another major step in the Human Rights Law was done in 1948 when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed and from that moment the Canadian Government attempted to make universal human rights a part of Canadian law. While even before that the Government has done lot of thing to solve various racial discrimination problems, with the signing of the Declaration the country turned to equality and problems of homosexual people. Canada by the way was the fourth country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide with an amendment of the Civil Marriage Act. Despite all these achievements there are still some problems left today. Some Canadian provinces still have religiously segregated schools, there is a certain lack of anti-discrimination laws to protect the disabled and the treatment of Canada’s First Nations people or Aboriginal Canadians attract criticism form the United Nations and other countries. But still the main areas of the Human Rights like the freedom of speech or the workers rights are heavily protected by the appropriate parts of the Canadian Law.

Today there are four key mechanisms in Canada to protect human rights: the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Canadian Human Rights Act, the Canadian Human Rights Commission, and provincial human rights laws and legislation. The cornerstone of human rights in Canada is the Canadian Human Rights Act. This Act was passed by the Canadian Government in 1977 and the goal of extending the law with this act was to ensure equal opportunity to individuals who may be victims of discriminatory practices based on various grounds such as gender, disability, or religion. The Canadian Human Rights Act applies throughout Canada, but only to federally regulated activities. Each province has its own anti-discrimination law that applies to activities that are not federally regulated. The Act triggered the creation of a Canadian Human Rights Commission that investigates claims of discrimination and also the creation of a Canadian Human Rights Tribunal to judge the cases. Another practice that is used in discrimination cases is the “Meiorin test”, it occurs if a complainant can show a valid case of discrimination and the defendant can rebut it by showing that their practice was for a justified reason. Also every case of discrimination in Canada undergoes several stages of investigation and remediation and only if the parties are not satisfied with the result the case will go to Canadian Human Rights Tribunal.

The Canadian legal system in every province except for Quebec is based on the British common law system. The Quebec province retains a civil system for issues of private law, however both of these legal systems are subject to the Constitution of Canada. Inside the commonwealth system everything is divided into areas like criminal law or civil law. It this article we will examine the Civil Law area and the Common Law area in Canada.

Common law

Canada belongs to a group of common law countries, so Canadian law adheres to the doctrine of stare decisis. In this system all the lower courts are bound by the decisions of higher courts and must follow it. But this works only inside one province, lower courts from two different provinces are not bound by each others decisions. The decisions made by a province’s highest court like the Court of Appeal, nevertheless are considered as “persuasive” even though they are not binding on other provinces. There is also the Supreme Court of Canada that authority to bind all courts in the country with a single ruling. If a there is a little or no existing Canadian decision on a legal issue it is possible that the court will look to a non-Canadian legal authority for reference. Most often the decisions on other commonwealth countries like the U.S. and England are utilized. While the decisions of English higher courts like the English Court of Appeal are respected and these courts are considered the be persuasive authority, many of the constitution or privacy related issues are solved basing on the decisions of United States courts, because the there is a much greater body of jurisprudence in U.S. law than English law in these areas. Canadian courts are also particularly bind with the decisions of the House of Lords made before 1867, but practice shows that most of these decisions were overturned by the Canadian Supreme Court or simply not considered serious by any of the Canadian lower courts.

Civil law

Civil Law in Canada involves numerous areas of law that contain disputes between parties (individuals, corporations and government). In such disputes parties seek remedies from the court in contractual matters, tort disputes, and property law cases. Civil Law is opposed to Criminal law that is typically enforced by the government, while the civil law, may be enforced by private parties. In Canada Civil Law also includes a growing sphere called Administrative Law, which deals with things like federal and provincial administrative tribunals, including labour boards, human rights tribunals, and workers’ compensation appeal tribunals. These decisions still can be reviewed by superior courts like the Federal Court Trial Division or the Federal Court of Appeal. Also Civil Law contains the Municipal Law area that covers jurisdiction of the provincial legislatures (that naturally varies from province to province). Established by the Supreme Court of Canada, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms applies to the activities of municipal governments.