for offences in &c. 622. In any indictment for any offence committed in Indictment respect of any postal card, postage stamp or other. stamp respect to issued or prepared for issue by the authority of the Parlia- postal cards, ment of Canada, or of the legislature of any province of Canada, or by, or by the authority of, any corporate body for the payment of any fee, rate or duty whatsoever, the property therein may be laid in the person in whose possession, as the owner thereof, it was when the offence was committed, or in Her Majesty if it was then unissued or in the possession of any officer or agent of the Government of Canada or of the province by authority of the legislature whereof it was issued or prepared for issue. R.S.C., c. 174, s. 125. servants. 623. In every case of theft or fraudulent application or Indictments disposition of any chattel, money or valuable security under against public sections three hundred and nineteen (c.) and three hundred and twenty-one of this Act, the property in any such chattel, money or valuable security may, in any warrant by the justice of the peace before whom the offender is charged, and in the indictment preferred against such offender, be laid in Her Majesty, or in the municipality, as the case may be. R.S.C., c. 174, s. 126. respecting &c. 624. When an offence is committed in respect of a post Indictments letter bag, or a post letter, or other mailable matter, chattel, for offences money or valuable security sent by post, the property of such letter bags, post letter bag, post letter, or other mailable matter, chattel, money or valuable security may, in the indictment preferred against the offender, be laid in the Postmaster-General; and it shall not be necessary to allege in the indictment, or to prove upon the trial or otherwise, that the post letter bag, post letter or other mailable matter, chattel or valuable security was of any value. 2. The property of any chattel or thing used or employed in the service of the post office, or of moneys arising from duties of postage, shall, except in the cases aforesaid, be laid in Her Majesty, if the same is the property of Her Majesty, or if the loss thereof would be borne by Her Majesty, and not by any person in his private capacity. 3. In any indictment against any person employed in the post office of Canada for any offence against this Act, or against any person for an offence committed in respect of any person so employed, it shall be sufficient to allege that such offender or such other person was employed in the post office of Canada at the time of the commission of such offence, without stating further the nature or particulars of his employment. R.S.C., c. 35, s. 111. 625. An indictment may be preferred against any person Indictment who steals any chattel let to be used by him in or with for stealing by any tenant or house or lodging, or who steals any fixture so let to be lodger. used, Joinder of counts and proceedings thereon. Accessories and receivers. used, in the same form as if the offender was not a tenant or lodger, and in either case the property may be laid in the owner or person letting to hire. R.S.C., c. 174, s. 127. 626. Any number of counts for any offences whatever may be joined in the same indictment, and shall be distinguished in the manner shown in the form EE in schedule one hereto, or to the like effect: Provided that to a count charging murder no count charging any offence other than murder shall be joined. 2. When there are more counts than one in an indictment each count may be treated as a separate indictment. 3. If the court thinks it conducive to the ends of justice to do so, it may direct that the accused shall be tried upon any one or more of such counts separately. Such order may be made either before or in the course of the trial, and if it is made in the course of the trial the jury shall be discharged from giving a verdict on the counts on which the trial is not to proceed. The counts in the indictment which are not then tried shall be proceeded upon in all respects as if they had been found in a separate indictment. 4. Provided that, unless there be special reasons, no order shall be made preventing the trial at the same time of any number of distinct charges of theft not exceeding three, alleged to have been committed within six months from the first to the last of such offences, whether against the same person or not. 5. If one sentence is passed upon any verdict of guilty on more counts than one, the sentence shall be good if any of such counts would have justified it. 627. Every one charged with being an accessory after the after the fact, fact to any offence, or with receiving any property knowing it to have been stolen, may be indicted, whether the principal offender or other party to the offence or person by whom such property was so obtained has or has not been indicted or convicted, or is or is not amenable to justice, and such accessory may be indicted either alone as for a substantive offence or jointly with such principal or other offender or person. Indictment vious con viction. 2. When any property has been stolen any number of receivers at different times of such property, or of any part or parts thereof, may be charged with substantive offences in the same indictment, and may be tried together, whether the person by whom the property was so obtained is or is not indicted with them, or is or is not in custody or amenable to justice. R.S.C., c. 174, ss. 133, 136 and 138. 628. In any indictment for any indictable offence, comcharging pre-mitted after a previous conviction or convictions for any indictable offence or offences or for any offence or offences (and for which a greater punishment may be inflicted on that account), account), it shall be sufficient, after charging the subsequent offence, to state that the offender was at a certain time and place, or at certain times and places, convicted of an indictable offence, or of an offence or offences, as the case may be, and to state the substance and effect only, omitting the formal part of the indictment and conviction, or of the summary conviction, as the case may be, for the previous offence, without otherwise describing the previous offence or offences. R.S.C., c. 174, s. 139. an indictment. 629. Every objection to any indictment for any defect ap- Objections to parent on the face thereof shall be taken by demurrer, or motion to quash the indictment, before the defendant has pleaded, and not afterwards, except by leave of the court or judge before whom the trial takes place, and every court before which any such objection is taken may, if it is thought necessary, cause the indictment to be forthwith amended in such particular, by some officer of the court or other person, and thereupon the trial shall proceed as if no such defect had appeared; and no motion in arrest of judgment shall be allowed for any defect in the indictment which might have been taken advantage of by demurrer, or amended under the authority of this Act. to indictment. 630. No person prosecuted shall be entitled as of right to Time to plead traverse or postpone the trial of any indictment preferred against him in any court, or to imparl, or to have time allowed him to plead or demur to any such indictment: Provided always, that if the court before which any person is so indicted, upon the application of such person or otherwise, is of opinion that he ought to be allowed a further time to plead or demur or to prepare for his defence, or otherwise, such court may grant such further time and may adjourn the trial of such person to a future time of the sittings of the court or to the next or any subsequent session or sittings of the court, and upon such terms, as to bail or otherwise, as to the court seem meet, and may, in the case of adjournment to another session or sitting, respite the recog nizances of the prosecutor and witnesses accordingly, in which case the prosecutor and witnesses shall be bound to attend to prosecute and give evidence at such subsequent session or sittings without entering into any fresh recognizances for that purpose. R.S.C., c. 174, s. 141. 631. The following special pleas and no others may be Special pleas. pleaded according to the provisions hereinafter contained, that is to say, a plea of autrefois acquit, a plea of autrefois convict, a plea of pardon, and such pleas in cases of defamatory libel as are hereinafter mentioned. 2. All other grounds of defence may be relied on under the plea of not guilty. Depositions and judge's notes on former trial. Second accusation. 3. The pleas of autrefois acquit, autrefois convict, and pardon may be pleaded together, and if pleaded shall be disposed of before the accused is called on to plead further; and if every such plea is disposed of against the accused he shall be allowed to plead not guilty. 4. In any plea of autrefois acquit or autrefois convict it shall be sufficient for the accused to state that he has been lawfully acquitted or convicted, as the case may be, of the offence charged in the count or counts to which such plea is pleaded, indicating the time and place of such acquittal, or conviction. R.S.C., c. 174, s. 146. 5. On the trial of an issue on a plea of autrefois acquit or autrefois convict to any count or counts, if it appear that the matter on which the accused was given in charge on the former trial is the same in whole or in part as that on which it is proposed to give him in charge, and that he might on the former trial, if all proper amendments had been made which might then have been made, have been convicted of all the offences of which he may be convicted on the count or counts to which such plea is pleaded, the court shall give judgment that he be discharged from such count or counts. 6. If it appear that the accused might on the former trial have been convicted of any offence of which he might be convicted on the count or counts to which such plea is pleaded, but that he may be convicted on any such count or counts of some offence or offences of which he could not have been convicted on the former trial, the court shall direct that he shall not be convicted on any such count or counts of any offence of which he might have been convic ted on the former trial, but that he shall plead over as to the other offence or offences charged. 632. On the trial of an issue on a plea of autrefois acquit or convict the depositions transmitted to the court on the former trial, together with the judge's and official stenographer's notes if available, and the depositions transmitted to the court on the subsequent charge, shall be admissible in evidence to prove or disprove the identity of the charges. 633. When an indictment charges substantially the same offence as that charged in the indictment on which the accused was given in charge on a former trial, but adds a statement of intention or circumstances of aggravation tending if proved to increase the punishment, the previous acquittal or conviction shall be a bar to such subsequent indictment. 2. A previous conviction or acquittal on an indictment for murder shall be a bar to a second indictment for the same homicide charging it as manslaughter; and a previous conviction or acquittal on an indictment for manslaughter shall be be a bar to a second indictment for the same homicide charging it as murder. fication in 634. Every one accused of publishing a defamatory libel Plea of justimay plead that the defamatory matter published by him was true, and that it was for the public benefit that the matters charged should be published in the manner and at the time when they were published. Such plea may justify the defamatory matter in the sense specified, if any, in the count, or in the sense which the defamatory matter bears without any such specification; or separate pleas justifying the defamatory matter in each sense may be pleaded separately to each as if two libels had been charged in separate counts. 2. Every such plea must be in writing, and must set forth the particular fact or facts by reason of which it was for the public good that such matters should be so published. The prosecutor may reply generally denying the truth thereof. 3. The truth of the matters charged in an alleged libel shall in no case be inquired into without such plea of justification unless the accused is put upon his trial upon any indictment or information charging him with publishing the libel knowing the same to be false, in which case evidence of the truth may be given in order to negative the allegation that the accused knew the libel to be false. 4. The accused may, in addition to such plea, plead not guilty and such pleas shall be inquired of together. 5. If, when such plea of justification is pleaded, the accused is convicted, the court may, in pronouncing sentence, consider whether his guilt is aggravated or mitigated by the plea. R.S.C., c. 174, ss. 148, 149, 150 and 151. Amended 56.Vu C.32 PART XLVII. CORPORATIONS. 635. Every corporation against which a bill of indict- Corporations ment is found at any court having criminal jurisdiction may appear by attorney. shall appear by attorney in the court in which such indictment is found and plead or demur thereto. R.S.C., c. 174, s. 155. 636. No writ of certiorari shall be necessary to remove Certiorari, any such indictment into any superior court with the view &c., not required. of compelling the defendant to plead thereto; nor shall it be necessary to issue any writ of distringas, or other process, to compel the defendant to appear and plead to such indictment. R.S.C., c. 174, s. 156. 14 637. |