Can You Use Force To Remove Someone From Your Property?

Thanks so much for joining me today. I’ve got a great topic for you today, and it’s something that a lot of our YouTube followers have been asking, can you use reasonable force to remove someone from your property? Wow, that’s a really loaded question, isn’t it? 

Under Section 35 of our Criminal Code, yes, you can use reasonable force to remove someone from your property. I’m going to give some examples. Let’s say a person’s trespassing on your property. I think the best thing to do in that situation, first of all, is to ask them to leave. They may be a non-violent trespasser, and you could escort them off the property. If they’re using some degree of violence, you can do a proportional response, which becomes a self-defense situation. You may have an unwanted guest in your home. Maybe you got into an argue with a friend or something, and you ask them to leave, and if they resist leaving, you can again use reasonable proportional force to gently push them out. You’ve got to not escalate the situation. 

And the Supreme Court of Canada has said in this situation that you should use the least amount of force possible to remove them from their property. So if you escalate it too far, you, for example, could be charged. Now, there’s situations where a person’s on your property, and you have to act in not only protecting your property but self-defense. So if the person is attacking you, you could, of course, use reasonable force to defend yourself and remove them from their property. And the whole thing is proportionality. I mean, if someone’s coming at you with their hands, for example, you don’t immediately pull out a gun. 

There may be situations, that you would be able to pull out a gun if your life’s in imminent danger, or a knife and that sort of thing. It all boils down to a lot of common sense, and the criminal code sets this all out much better than previous years. The Criminal Code was revamped a number of years ago to make our self-defense and trespassing situations more user friendly for juries and judges. Now let me give you an example or two. So, let’s say you have a friend over who’s at dinner, and you’re getting into an argument. You’re asked them to leave. They’re not leaving. Well, in that situation, maybe it’s best to call a police and have them removed, and that avoids the situation quite readily. But if you decide to take matters in your own hands, you’ve got to use the least amount of force. 

You, for example, you could say, “look we want you to leave I’m going to gently escort you to the door”. If that person escalates the situation, you can use proportional force if they start attacking you, you could act in self-defense. So that’s one situation. Another situation might be someone comes on your land, again, just turn out by politely pointing out for them that they’re on your land, please leave. If they don’t leave again, you can use reasonable force. 

Perhaps escorting them a gentle push would be okay. In that situation, you don’t want to escalate it. And perhaps again, the best situation, if there are nonviolent trespasser and refuses to leave, just phone the police. I mean, you’ve got rights under the Criminal Code, but situations get escalated, and you could find yourself getting charged. You know, that person could say they attacked you, etc, etc. So the simple answer the question then under section 35 Yes, we can use reasonable force to remove trespassers, to remove unwanted people from across property, but you’ve got to be very careful. You’ve got to use the least amount of force possible to get the task done. It’s got to be reasonable. And in responding to self-defense, you have to have some degree of proportionality in terms of how they’re attacking you, what you do. 

An example might be, if you’re a 100-pound woman and a man’s coming at you with fists, well, that may be a situation where you could use a gun or a knife. If your whole being is in danger, you’re acting as self-defense. So, it’s a tricky question. I’ve seen people charged. We’ve won cases in this situation but situations can get ahead. My advice to you as a lawyer with trespassers is, if they’re nonviolent, don’t escalate the situation, just ask them to leave, and perhaps just phone the police. That’s probably the best route to do, and the police will come. Maybe look at the message once you’re picking up the phone to ask the police to come, maybe they’ll just leave. But you have to be very careful with your response and how you conduct yourself to be reasonable in the circumstances, which is which is really a common-sense thing when it boils down to proportionality and reasonableness of your conduct, isn’t it? 

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