The 2020-2021 Annotated Contraventions Act is a must-have reference to the 3,000 federal statutory and regulatory offenses that have been designated as contraventions under the contraventions legislation.

This book includes the full text of the Contraventions Act and Regulations, including the short-form descriptions of scheduled offenses. The author provides comprehensive annotations, including skillfully prepared commentary, applicable case law, and cross references to related Criminal Code sections. It also includes a systematic examination of companion amendments to federal statutes such as the Canada Evidence Act, Criminal Code, and the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

What’s New in this edition:

Legislative Highlights

• The Contraventions Regulations SOR/96-313 have been amended by SOR/2019-228, effective 17 June 2019. These amendments to Schedule XI to the Contraventions Regulations designate as contraventions new provisions of the Marine Activities in the Saguenay - St. Lawrence Marine Park Regulations. Fine amounts have also been increased so as to reflect current standards of compliance.

Case Law Highlights

• Bessette v. British Columbia (Attorney General) (S.C.C.) — The Supreme Court of Canada held the requirements of s. 530 of the Criminal Code to apply to British Columbia’s Offence Act and, thereby, provides for the language of proceedings under that province’s Motor Vehicle Act.
• Law Society of Saskatchewan v. Kapoor (Sask. C.A.) — Saskatchewan’s Court of Appeal upheld the discipline exacted upon the lawyer who deliberately refrained from alerting a tribunal of a non-binding authority that had been directly on point with an issue — while the rule of professional conduct pertained to binding authorities, the appellate court found the lawyer to have breached his overall duty of candour.
• R. v. Devatgar-Jafarpour (Ont. C.A.) — The Court of Appeal for Ontario held the Crown not to have breached its disclosure obligations by failing to decrypt a hard drive or by neither producing nor reviewing its contents — the Crown’s obligations were fulfilled with disclosure of the fact that the police had seized the hard drive, leaving open the opportunity for defence to request it be decrypted and produced.
• R. v. Parmar (B.C. S.C.) — The court held the defence of necessity to be available on a charge of speeding — in this instance, the defendant sought to avoid a car being driven dangerously by driving speed with the aim of creating distance from that car.
• R. v. Doxtator (Ont. C.J.) — While Gladue principles apply to the provincial offence of driving while uninsured, the court advised that this does not necessarily translate to an Indigenous defendant receiving a fine less than the minimum amount of $5,000 — a successful claim for such relief still requires meeting a very high bar.