Self Defence in Canada: Citizen’s Arrest

Someone throws a punch at you, you block it, and then you punch them once back and they try to run away, and you grab them and place them under arrest and have someone yell to yell to someone to phone the police. Are you allowed to do that? Are you allowed to defend yourself, and then are you allowed to place the person under citizen’s arrest, to wait for the police to come? 

Great question that I’m going to answer today. I’m going to break it down. Under Section 34 of our Criminal Code in Canada, you can use if you’re under attack, let’s say reasonable force or force is being used against you. You are being assaulted. You can act and protect yourself. This section 34 allows you to do that.

The force you use to defend yourself has to be reasonable in the circumstances somewhat proportional. So for example, if someone punches you, you don’t simply bring out a gun and shoot them. There’s one punch, that’s not reasonable force. But if someone punches you, arguably, you’re entitled to punch back, to defend yourself, to get them off you, but the force has to be reasonable in the circumstances and not excessive. Under Section 494, of the Criminal Code. This is the Citizen’s Arrest section of the Criminal Code which was brought in. And if you see someone committing a crime, it may be against you. It may be property crime. It may be assaulting someone else. You are entitled to do a Citizen’s Arrest. There’s caveats, though, to it. The Citizen’s Arrest has to happen right away. It can’t be delayed. You can’t go five minutes later arrest the person, or, you know, the person’s running down the block, and you chase them down, tackle them and beat them up. That’s not a Citizen’s Arrest. 

So in the example I gave you, for example, you were attacked. You’re punched. You blocked the punch. You’ve used reasonable force. The person stumbled. They’re trying to get away. You grab them and yell for someone to call the call the police, and you held them. That’s a proper Citizen’s Arrest arguably. If I gave you another example where the person was running down the block and you tackle them and started punching them, obviously not excessive force, and the Citizen’s Arrest did not happen right away. So you have to be very careful in these situations. There’s no question about it. So there’s various examples I could give you. Let’s say someone is breaking into your property. Not a very good situation. Probably best to phone the police in this situation. But let’s assume, for example, that you caught some 15 year old kid breaking your property, and you arrested them and held them they’re not struggling back. You call the police. That’s a proper Citizen’s Arrest.

Now let’s say you find someone breaking in your property, and you start beating the heck out of that kid, punching and punching and calling the police, and they’ve stopped, and they’re giving up, and you’re just hurting them. Obviously, those are two extreme examples, not a proper Citizen’s Arrest, and you’re going to get charged with assault yourself. So you have to be very careful in these situations. 

What I would advise you, if you see someone committing a crime, and they’re, you know, down the street, and it’s time later, I wouldn’t necessarily advise running after them. First of all, it’s dangerous. You should call the police, but there are situations, of course, where you’re being attacked. Maybe it turns out that you’re a better fighter than this person, and you defended yourself properly. You didn’t use excessive force. They’ve given up. You’re holding them as someone else is calling the police. That could be construed as a property Citizen’s Arrest. But I can tell you, I’ve seen people get serious problems in this situation, because sometimes they want more revenge, they get in extra shots, which are excessive. So you have to be very careful in Canada in following this. I think my best advice to you is, if you properly, defend yourself, maybe you don’t want to get into it again, and just call it police and you can identify the person later, but everyone’s going to make their own decision, but in this regard, but if you do decide to affect a citizen’s arrest after being assaulted, or seeing a property crime or seeing someone else being assaulted. Make sure you don’t use excessive force, and make sure that citizen’s arrest happens right away. Those are two cardinal rules, and never chase after anyone that’s a dangerous situation. They can pull a knife, etc. So there you have it. I just wanted to give you a little bit of principles basic principles about self defense for assault and affecting a Citizen’s Arrest and what’s going to work in terms of getting you charged or not charged to do proper Citizen’s Arrest but the bottom line is, you certainly once you’ve been attacked, you certainly want to avoid getting yourself charged with assault, so think it through carefully and do the right thing.

Thank you for watching our video.