Something is indeed “broken” in this country when we constantly hear stories about violent offenders who commit the most heinous of crimes while out on parole, when our streets are filled with open drug use and when the leaders of proscribed terrorist organizations are allowed to continue to
, yet a man who defended himself during a home invasion is charged with aggravated assault and assault with a weapon.
It’s a scenario we’ve all surely seen in the movies and wondered how we’d handle ourselves. You wake up in the middle of the night after hearing a noise from inside your home. You get out of bed to investigate and grab a knife on your way through the kitchen. Suddenly, you see a figure lurking in the shadows. It looks like the intruder is armed so you lurch into action in a desperate attempt to save yourself and your family from harm.
While we don’t know all the details of what took place in Lindsay, Ont., on Monday, it’s
that Jeremy David McDonald woke up around 3:30 a.m. and found Michael Kyle Breen, who was later charged with possessing a weapon, inside his apartment. An altercation ensued and Breen ended up with what police described as “serious life-threatening injuries,” leading to MacDonald’s arrest on assault charges.
It’s important to remember, as Kawartha Lakes Police Chief Kirk Robertson reminded us, that “charges are not convictions; they are part of the judicial process, which ensures that all facts are considered fairly in court.” Indeed, Canadian law
individuals to use force, sometimes even deadly force to protect their lives and property, so long as it’s “reasonable in the circumstances.”
The catch, of course, is that what’s considered “reasonable” is somewhat subjective. As a
on changes to the Criminal Code made under the Harper government explains, “A dwelling-house is a special kind of property — threats in relation to a dwelling house typically also create an element of personal danger which likely is enough to trigger defence of the person, which does allow for deadly force to be used.”
But
forces judges to consider a long list of factors, including “whether there were other means available to respond to the potential use of force,” the size and gender of the attacker, and the “nature and proportionality of the person’s response” — not exactly the types of things likely going
after being awoken from slumber and facing a potentially life-threatening situation.
This is why many are outraged that the officers involved chose to arrest McDonald in the first place. While there’s some logic in passing the buck to the courts to figure out exactly what transpired and whether it was “reasonable,” the risk is that a man could end up behind bars simply for defending himself inside his own home. There certainly have been incidents in this country in which
, even for using deadly force to deter a home invasion.
Nor would criminal charges be laid in most U.S. states, as the
of them adhere to the castle doctrine, which, as Cornell’s Legal Information Institute
, “refers to an exception to the duty to retreat before using deadly self-defence if a party is in their own home. Under the doctrine of self-defence, a party who reasonably believes they are threatened with the immediate use of deadly force can legally respond with a proportional amount of force to deter that threat.”
The idea is essentially that, as the saying goes, “a man’s home is his castle,” and he should have the right to defend it by any means necessary. This is a position that’s being taken by some provincial premiers.
“You should be able to protect your family when someone’s going in there to harm your family and your kids,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said on Wednesday. “This guy gives him a beating, and this guy gets charged … something is broken.” His remarks were echoed by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith on Thursday, who
: “If you don’t want to get shot or beaten up, don’t break into people’s houses. It’s pretty straightforward.”
They identified the fundamental problem with our criminal justice system: in order to deter crime, there needs to be consequences for it; but too often in this country, criminals are released with little more than a slap on the wrist. As Smith said, “We all have had instances where somebody has been released on their own recognizance and then been repeat offenders … so we know that this is a problem that needs to be solved through (federal) legislation.”
While Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre
on the issue — tweeting, “If someone breaks in, you deserve the right to defend your loved ones and your property – full stop” — there has so far been crickets from the federal government. It’s high time for Ottawa to get serious about imposing severe sanctions on those who pose a threat to society and stop wasting time and money prosecuting people who are simply trying to defend themselves and their loved ones from serious harm.
