Criminal Code (Canada)

The Criminal Code, formally An Act respecting the Criminal Law, is the statute of the Parliament of Canada that codifies most, though not all, of Canada's criminal offenses and the principles of Canadian criminal procedure. The original Code was passed in 1892 and came into force on July 1, 1893, and it has been substantially revised since, most notably in 1954 and again with major amendments in 2018 and 2019. Because the Canadian constitution gives Parliament exclusive jurisdiction over criminal law, every offense defined in the Code is a federal crime that can be prosecuted anywhere in the country, and most indictable offenses carry no statute of limitations while summary offenses generally must be prosecuted within twelve months. The Code is organized into 28 parts covering distinct categories of crime, including offenses against public order, firearms and weapons offenses, sexual offenses, fraud, and, since 2001, terrorism, alongside procedural provisions on jurisdiction, trial procedure, sentencing and cases involving mental disorder.