|
Criminal - Inchoate Offences. R. v. Wheeler
In R. v. Wheeler (Ont CA, 2022) the Court of Appeal characterizes 'inchoate' offences:[23] In R. v. Legare, 2009 SCC 56, [2009] 3 S.C.R. 551, the Supreme Court explained the inchoate offences at para. 25 as follows:It will immediately be seen that s. 172.1(1)(c) creates an incipient or “inchoate” offence, that is, a preparatory crime that captures otherwise legal conduct meant to culminate in the commission of a completed crime. It criminalizes conduct that precedes the commission of the sexual offences to which it refers, and even an attempt to commit them. Nor, indeed, must the offender meet or intend to meet the victim with a view to committing any of the specified secondary offences. This is in keeping with Parliament’s objective to close the cyberspace door before the predator gets in to prey. [Emphasis in original.] . R. v. Cowan
In R. v. Cowan (SCC, 2021) the Supreme Court of Canada considered the inchoate criminal offences of abetting and counselling, which I have always found interesting:[29] For the purposes of determining criminal liability, the Criminal Code does not distinguish between principal offenders and parties to an offence (R. v. Briscoe, 2010 SCC 13, [2010] 1 S.C.R. 411, at para. 13). An accused’s guilt is the same regardless of the way in which they participated in the offence –– the person who provides the gun is guilty of the same offence as the person who pulls the trigger (ibid.; R. v. Huard, 2013 ONCA 650, 302 C.C.C. (3d) 469, at para. 59).
[30] Sections 21 and 22 of the Criminal Code set out the various ways in which an accused may participate in and be found guilty of a particular offence. Those provisions codify both liability for an accused who participates in an offence by actually committing it, under s. 21(1)(a) (principal liability); and liability for an accused who participates in an offence by, for example, abetting or counselling another person to commit the offence, under s. 21(1)(c) or s. 22(1) (party liability) (R. v. Pickton, 2010 SCC 32, [2010] 2 S.C.R. 198, at para. 51).
[31] Where, as here, an accused is being tried alone and there is evidence that more than one person participated in the commission of the offence, the Crown is not required to prove the identity of the other participant(s) or the precise part played by each in order to prove an accused’s guilt as a party (R. v. Isaac, 1984 CanLII 130 (SCC), [1984] 1 S.C.R. 74, at p. 81, citing R. v. Sparrow (1979), 1979 CanLII 2988 (ON CA), 51 C.C.C. (2d) 443 (Ont. C.A.), at p. 458). This principle applies where an accused is prosecuted as either an abettor or counsellor.
[32] The essential elements of abetting are well established. The actus reus of abetting is doing something or omitting to do something that encourages the principal to commit the offence (Briscoe, at paras. 14‑15). As for the mens rea, it has two components: intent and knowledge (para. 16). The abettor must have intended to abet the principal in the commission of the offence and known that the principal intended to commit the offence (paras. 16‑17).
[33] Although the jurisprudence setting out the elements of abetting refers to encouraging “the principal”, intending to abet “the principal”, and knowing that “the principal” intended to commit the offence, the Crown is not required to prove the identity of “the principal” or their specific role in the commission of the offence for party liability to attach (R. v. Thatcher, 1987 CanLII 53 (SCC), [1987] 1 S.C.R. 652, at pp. 687‑89).
[34] In Thatcher, the accused was charged with first degree murder. To establish his guilt, the Crown presented two alternative theories of liability. It argued that the accused was either the principal offender, in that he personally murdered the victim, or a party to the offence, in that he had the victim murdered by someone else. The trial judge instructed the jury that the Crown’s inability to adduce evidence of another specific, identified individual as the person who actually committed the murder did not preclude the jury from finding the accused guilty as a party. The jury returned a verdict of guilty on the offence of first degree murder. The accused appealed on the basis that the trial judge erred in instructing the jury that the Crown was not required to prove the identity of the principal offender. His appeal was dismissed by the Court of Appeal for Saskatchewan. On further appeal, this Court agreed with the Court of Appeal, holding that the trial judge’s instructions were “perfectly proper”, because “[t]here is, of course, no burden on the Crown to point to a specific, identified person as the personal assailant of the victim” (pp. 687‑88).
[35] Similar principles apply to counselling, which is defined in the Criminal Code to include “procur[ing], solicit[ing] and incit[ing]” (s. 22(3)). The actus reus is the “deliberate encouragement or active inducement of the commission of a criminal offence” (R. v. Hamilton, 2005 SCC 47, [2005] 2 S.C.R. 432, at para. 29 (emphasis deleted)). The person deliberately encouraged or actively induced by the counsellor must also actually participate in the offence (para. 63, per Charron J., dissenting on other grounds; Criminal Code, s. 22(1)). As for the mens rea, the counsellor must have “either intended that the offence counselled be committed, or knowingly counselled the commission of the offence while aware of the unjustified risk that the offence counselled was in fact likely to be committed as a result of the accused’s conduct” (Hamilton, at para. 29).
[36] While one of the requisite elements of counselling is the actual participation in the offence by the person counselled, that person can participate not only as a principal, but also as a party. This is reflected by the wording of s. 22(1), which states that an accused is a party if they “counse[l] another person to be a party to an offence and that other person is afterwards a party to that offence”. The precise manner of participation is irrelevant, since whether the person counselled is a principal or a party, “[t]he focus on a prosecution for counselling is on the counsellor’s conduct and state of mind, not that of the person counselled” (Hamilton, at para. 74).
|
