Simon's Legal Resources

Criminal - Definition - "Every one, person and owner"

. R. v. King

In R. v. King (Ont CA, 2026) the Ontario Court of Appeal allowed a Crown criminal appeal, this brought against an "acquittal on the count of intimidation contrary to s. 423(1)(g) of the Criminal Code".

Here the court considered the Criminal Code's definition of the terms "every one, person and owner" [CCC s.2], and whether it includes 'Canada' (it does):

[62] Finally, we agree that the trial judge erred in finding that the Government of Canada is not a “person” and rejecting, on this basis, the Crown’s second theory as to how the specific intent requirement was satisfied. Section 2 of the Criminal Code stipulates that the terms “every one, person and owner, and similar expressions, include Her Majesty” (emphasis added). We need not decide whether the House of Commons and the Senate, the legislative branches of the Government of Canada, are captured by the term “Her Majesty”, but certainly the Crown in Right of Canada through the executive is: see Interpretation Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. I-21, s. 35(1) (“Her Majesty”); Alberta Government Telephones v. (Canada) Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, 1989 CanLII 78 (SCC), [1989] 2 S.C.R. 225, at p. 274.[5] Since Mr. King’s focus was on government COVID-19 policies at large, including executive initiatives, his conduct was aimed at “another person” who can be compelled, contrary to s. 423(1), “to abstain from doing anything that he or she has a lawful right to do, or to do anything that he or she has a lawful right to abstain from doing”.