What Does Criminal Mischief Really Mean?

What does criminal mischief under our Criminal Code really mean? Well, mischief occurs when someone willfully damages, destroys or interferes with someone’s property or legal rights. That’s the basic definition, and I’ll give you some examples. So, let’s say I do vandalism of public property and destroy public property. That’s obviously mischief. I could do that private home. So, it applies for public and private property. There are all sorts of situations. If I punch a hole in a wall on a house that I jointly own with my wife. That’s mischief, because even though I own it, she owns it too, so she could complain to the police, I could be charged with mischief and face a criminal record. Potentially, there are situations as well where you could interfere with someone’s property rights or their legal rights. And I’ll give you an example. Let’s say you’re having a dispute with a neighbor, and you decide to disconnect their power supply so that you put them out a business on the power supply for a few days. Well, that’s interfering with their property rights. That’s a mischief charge, that happens often with neighbours. These different things happen that way as well. You could also interfere with a person’s property in other ways. You could move their property, so it’s in an unusual location. For example, take some goods and move it into a pile where the rain hits it and whatnot. That obviously, is mischief. So, there’s all sorts of examples. Mischief can be very minor, where you might be able to avoid a criminal record if you admit you did it and they can prove the case. Or it might be crazy, where you destroy a church and start, you know, hate crimes and things like that. So, it attracts very wide sentences. I mean, sentences can range from a conditional discharge up to literally years in jail. And there’s all sorts of different sections under mischief, like, for example, if it’s a testamentary instrument involving a will involving over a certain threshold of dollars, you could face up to 10 years in jail. I mean, maximum sentences are were reserved for the worst case, and worst offenders. And worst offenders often have serial convictions and multiple records. The goal often with our clients, if they’re caught red handed and we can’t have a defence, just try and minimize the damage, so to speak, no pun intended, we can often avoid a criminal record. In some cases, on a very minor mischief if the alleged victim is willing, for example, and the crown on board, we can sometimes negotiate a peace bond with restitution paid and upfront counseling and that sort of thing. So, everything’s different. Mischief can be a very minor criminal charge. And I’m not trying to minimize some idiot husband punching a hole in the wall, because that’s stupidity and a criminal charge up to destroying the church. It attracts a wide range. So, in terms of defences, there’s intent, like maybe you accidentally did the damage. Who knows? I mean, that’s a defense. A victim may consent. I mean, maybe there’s an argument that they wanted you to do the damage, and they agreed to that, and now they’re complaining for whatever reason. So, there’s different defences. One, of course, in the case of mistaken identity, if they can’t crown, can’t prove it was you. So, there you have it. That’s a brief description of what Mr. Really is under the under the Criminal Code. Thank you for watching our video. We are absolutely committed to bringing you the best possible criminal and DUI educational videos. If you found this video helpful, please like it and subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you’ve been charged with the criminal offense in Ontario and require our services, please click on the link in the description below.