Unlocking Benefits: Section 810 Peace Bonds

Hi thank you so much for joining me today. I want to talk to you today about section 810 peace bonds in the Canadian criminal justice system. So first of all under Section 810 of the Criminal Code, an alleged victim could apply to a Justice of the Peace, for example, to force somebody into a peace bond. They can allege there was some threatening behavior or criminal harassment or things like that. This is not a criminal charge. So there would be a hearing and if the crown proves that the alleged facts took place, then the court would order the person to enter into a peace bond. What does an 810 peace bond mean then? Well, it means that the judge says I’m going to order I find that what the complainant said is true, and I’m going to order you to keep the peace and be of good behavior, not to contact the victim for a period of 12 months. So that keeps some supervisory role of the courts over this person. It’s great for them because you’re not getting a criminal record. They’re not contacting the victim and you know, the great thing about it is there’s no criminal record. So that’s the beauty of a peace bond in the context of being charged with a criminal offence because, you know, we represent a lot of domestic assault assaults, sexual assaults, these types of offences, and sometimes the crown will proceed with or we convinced them they have a pretty weak case. Would you accept a peace bond? And if they say, Yes, we go, yes, that’s a win. That’s a win for the client because the criminal charges get withdrawn and the client just enters into a peace bond. Keep the peace be good behavior, stay away from the victim for 12 months for a period of one year. The only downside of a peace bond you enter into a recognizance say in about 1000 bucks. If you breach the peace on the crown, the government can seize that 1000 bucks by the way, they rarely do that, what they more commonly do is charge you with a breach of a peace bond under the Criminal Code, which is another criminal offence. But it’s a great win for our clients when we can secure a peace bond as opposed to the vast expense of heading to trial with the uncertainty of potentially losing a sexual assault matter for that matter, and by the way, it’s not easy to get a peace bond from a sexual assault and that’s an absolute win when we get that. Oftentimes the crown, even on a weak case will force us to go to trial and force us to win and there’s always a risk of losing. So why wouldn’t you accept a Peace Bond if it’s offered to get rid of that and great legal expenses a 2 week jury trial are going to take? So there you have it in a nutshell, those are the great effects of a peace bond. It’s a win if you can get a criminal charge withdrawn and it’s not so bad in the sense that you don’t have a criminal record. In any event, so peace bonds are often a good thing to enter into. 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 a criminal offence and Ontario and require our services please click on the link in the description below.