Criminal Code (R.S.C., 1985, c. C-46)

Sedition

Marginal note:Seditious words

• 59 (1) Seditious words are words that express a seditious intention.

• Marginal note:Seditious libel

  (2) A seditious libel is a libel that expresses a seditious intention.

• Marginal note:Seditious conspiracy

  (3) A seditious conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons to carry out a seditious intention.

• Marginal note:Seditious intention

  (4) Without limiting the generality of the meaning of the expression seditious intention, every one shall be presumed to have a seditious intention who

  • (a) teaches or advocates, or

  • (b) publishes or circulates any writing that advocates,

  the use, without the authority of law, of force as a means of accomplishing a governmental change within Canada.

Marginal note:Exception

60 Notwithstanding subsection 59(4), no person shall be deemed to have a seditious intention by reason only that he intends, in good faith,

• (a) to show that Her Majesty has been misled or mistaken in her measures;

• (b) to point out errors or defects in

  • (i) the government or constitution of Canada or a province,

  • (ii) Parliament or the legislature of a province, or

  • (iii) the administration of justice in Canada;

• (c) to procure, by lawful means, the alteration of any matter of government in Canada; or

• (d) to point out, for the purpose of removal, matters that produce or tend to produce feelings of hostility and ill-will between different classes of persons in Canada.

Marginal note:Punishment of seditious offences

61 Every one who

• (a) speaks seditious words,

• (b) publishes a seditious libel, or

• (c) is a party to a seditious conspiracy,

is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding fourteen years.

Marginal note:Offences in relation to military forces

• 62 (1) Every person is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term of not more than five years or is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction who intentionally

  • (a) interferes with, impairs or influences the loyalty or discipline of a member of a force,

  • (b) publishes, edits, issues, circulates or distributes a writing that advises, counsels or urges insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny or refusal of duty by a member of a force, or

  • (c) advises, counsels, urges or in any manner causes insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny or refusal of duty by a member of a force.

• Definition of member of a force

  (2) In this section, member of a force means a member of

  • (a) the Canadian Forces; or

  • (b) the naval, army or air forces of a state other than Canada that are lawfully present in Canada.

Unlawful Assemblies and Riots

Marginal note:Unlawful assembly

• 63 (1) An unlawful assembly is an assembly of three or more persons who, with intent to carry out any common purpose, assemble in such a manner or so conduct themselves when they are assembled as to cause persons in the neighbourhood of the assembly to fear, on reasonable grounds, that they

  • (a) will disturb the peace tumultuously; or

  • (b) will by that assembly needlessly and without reasonable cause provoke other persons to disturb the peace tumultuously.

• Marginal note:Lawful assembly becoming unlawful

  (2) Persons who are lawfully assembled may become an unlawful assembly if they conduct themselves with a common purpose in a manner that would have made the assembly unlawful if they had assembled in that manner for that purpose.

• Marginal note:Exception

  (3) Persons are not unlawfully assembled by reason only that they are assembled to protect the dwelling-house of any one of them against persons who are threatening to break and enter it for the purpose of committing an indictable offence therein.

Marginal note:Riot

64 A riot is an unlawful assembly that has begun to disturb the peace tumultuously.

Marginal note:Punishment of rioter

• 65 (1) Every person who takes part in a riot is guilty of

  • (a) an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term of not more than two years; or

  • (b) an offence punishable on summary conviction.

• Marginal note:Concealment of identity

  (2) Every person who commits an offence under subsection (1) while wearing a mask or other disguise to conceal their identity without lawful excuse is guilty of

  • (a) an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term of not more than 10 years; or

  • (b) an offence punishable on summary conviction.

Marginal note:Punishment for unlawful assembly

• 66 (1) Every one who is a member of an unlawful assembly is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction.

• Marginal note:Concealment of identity

  (2) Every person who commits an offence under subsection (1) while wearing a mask or other disguise to conceal their identity without lawful excuse is guilty of

  • (a) an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years; or

  • (b) an offence punishable on summary conviction.

Marginal note:Reading proclamation

67 A person who is

• (a) a justice, mayor or sheriff, or the lawful deputy of a mayor or sheriff,

• (b) a warden or deputy warden of a prison, or

• (c) the institutional head of a penitentiary, as those expressions are defined in subsection 2(1) of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act, or that person’s deputy,

who receives notice that, at any place within the jurisdiction of the person, twelve or more persons are unlawfully and riotously assembled together shall go to that place and, after approaching as near as is safe, if the person is satisfied that a riot is in progress, shall command silence and thereupon make or cause to be made in a loud voice a proclamation in the following words or to the like effect:

Her Majesty the Queen charges and commands all persons being assembled immediately to disperse and peaceably to depart to their habitations or to their lawful business on the pain of being guilty of an offence for which, on conviction, they may be sentenced to imprisonment for life. GOD SAVE THE QUEEN.

Marginal note:Offences related to proclamation

68 Every one is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for life who

• (a) opposes, hinders or assaults, wilfully and with force, a person who begins to make or is about to begin to make or is making the proclamation referred to in section 67 so that it is not made;

• (b) does not peaceably disperse and depart from a place where the proclamation referred to in section 67 is made within thirty minutes after it is made; or

• (c) does not depart from a place within thirty minutes when he has reasonable grounds to believe that the proclamation referred to in section 67 would have been made in that place if some person had not opposed, hindered or assaulted, wilfully and with force, a person who would have made it.