All information presented, including forms, documents and FAQs, are for educational purposes. None of this information has been reviewed by legal counsel and may not fit your specific situation. Due to the intense personal nature of any legal issue, it is suggested that you consult with appropriate legal counsel to ensure your issues are effectively resolved.

What is homicide?
Homicide is committed by a person who, directly or indirectly, by any means, causes the death of another human being.

Homicide is culpable or not culpable.

Homicide that is not culpable is not an offence (there is a legal reason, for example, self-defence, or accident, where there is no blameworthy negligence). In most cases, where there is a homicide there will be a coroner's inquest and /or an inquiry, to first determine whether the homicide was culpable or not culpable.

Culpable homicide is:

• Murder;
• Manslaughter;
• Infanticide;

A person commits culpable homicide when that person causes the death of another human being:

• by means of an unlawful act;
• by criminal negligence;
• by causing that human being, by threats or fear of violence, or by deception, to do anything that causes the death of that human being;
• if that human being is a child or sick person, by willfully frightening that human being.

What is murder?
It is murder when the killer of a human being:

• means to cause the death of that human being; or
• means to cause bodily harm to a human being that is likely to cause the death of that human being and the killer is reckless as to whether or not the person dies;
• when the killer, for an unlawful purpose, does anything that he knows or ought to know is likely to cause death even they he may wish to carry out the unlawful purpose without causing death or bodily harm to a human being; or when the death of a human being results when:
  • the killer means to cause bodily harm to make it more certain to complete the crime successfully or make the killer's escape easier after the crime;
  • the killer gives the subjects the victim to an overpowering or stupefying;
  • the killer intentionally smothers the victim; or
  • causes the death of a human being while committing or attempting to commit high treason or treason, sabotage, piracy, hijacking an aircraft, escape or rescue from prison or lawful custody, assaulting a peace officer, any of the sexual assault charges, kidnapping and forcible confinement, hostage taking, breaking and entering; or arson whether or not the criminal means to cause death to any human being or knows that it is likely to be caused.

What is the difference between first degree and second degree murder?
Murder is first degree murder when:

• it is planned and deliberate;
• the killing is planned and deliberate and involves payment of money to the killer or anyone who assists in the death of the victim and all persons involved in effecting the death may be charged with first degree murder ( a paid or contract killing or "hit");
• whether or not the killing is planned and deliberate, when the victim is a police person or other peace officer in the course of his or her duties, or a prison warden, guard or other prison or other person working in a prison, acting in the course of his or her work or duties;
• when the death occurs during the commission of the following offences:
  • hijacking an aircraft;
  • a sexual assault offence;
  • kidnapping and forcible confinement; or
  • hostage taking;
  • criminal harassment (stalking);
  • setting or attempting to set off explosives for the benefit or at the direction of or in association with a criminal organization (known criminal or terrorist organizations or gangs).

All murder that is not first degree murder is second degree murder.

What is manslaughter?
Murder may be reduced to the offence of manslaughter if the person who caused the death did it in the heat of passion, caused by sudden provocation sufficient to deprive a normal person of the power of self-control, providing the accused acted on it quickly, before there was time to cool down.

What is infanticide?
This is an offence of lessened capacity that is limited to a female person who, not fully recovered from the disturbing effects on her of a birth of her child or subsequent lactation, by a wilful act or omission, causes the death of her newly-born child. The maximum penalty is five years imprisonment.

What is the penalty for murder?
The penalty for first or second degree murder is life imprisonment and it is the minimum penalty.

What is the penalty for manslaughter?
The penalty for either manslaughter or attempted murder is a maximum of life imprisonment and, where a firearm is used in the commission of the offence, to a minimum term of four years in prison.

What is Euthanasia?
Euthanasia is defined by the dictionary as "the act of killing a person painlessly for reasons of mercy". It can be done by a positive act, as has been done by administering measured doses of lethal drugs that painlessly and gradually induce a painless death, either by injection or a machine. It can also be effected by withholding a lifesaving medical procedure, which, in the case of a clearly terminally ill and suffering patient is often referred to as a "heroic measure" to prolong life. Such withholding of a procedure or treatment is known as "passive euthanasia", and is most often sought in cases of persons suffering painful and incurable diseases. It is a matter of great controversy.

Euthanasia is illegal in Canada. Under the Criminal Code, no one may consent to have death inflicted on him or her and such consent does not relieve any person who inflicts such death of criminal responsibility.

Further, anyone who counsels or assists a person to commit suicide, whether the suicide happens or not, is guilty of a criminal offence with a maximum penalty of fourteen years in prison.

In modern medicine, passive euthanasia is a reality, dealing with advanced terminal cases.

On the one hand the Criminal Code makes it the legal duty of someone in charge of a person to provide that person with the necessaries of life if the person is unable, by reason of illness or other cause unable to provide himself or herself with such necessaries.

On the other hand, Canadians have a basic right to refuse medical care and to decide what medical treatment they accept or reject, even if rejection of a life-saving procedure leads to death. This right is part of the right not to be deprived of "security of the person" as set out in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

An example often pointed to is a person who, for religious reasons, refuses to accept a blood transfusion.

Widely used in Ontario is a document called a power of attorney for personal care in which the donor appoints a trusted relative or friend with the authority to consent to matters dealing with the care of that person, such as nursing or rehabilitative and medical procedures. Most such documents contain wording which constitutes a "living Will" in which the donor of the power expresses that he or she does not want heroic measures employed to only sustain life if suffering an incurable or terminal condition.

Problems that may arise with a living will would be if the medical practitioner were unsure in the circumstances if the document is valid. For this reason, such a document should be prepared by a lawyer and safeguards taken as a lawyer may advise to assure others who may be required to act upon it that it is up to date and valid.