PART XLIV.

COMPELLING APPEARANCE OF ACCUSED BEFORE JUSTICE. (Amended.)

553. For the purposes of this Act, the following provisions shall have effect with respect to the jurisdiction of justices :

(a) Where the offence is committed in any water, tidal or other, between two or more magisterial jurisdictions, such offence may be considered as having been committed in either of such jurisdictions. R. S. C. c. 174, s. 11.

(b) Where the offence is committed on the boundary of two or more magisterial jurisdictions, or within the distance of five hundred yards from any such boundary, or is begun within one magisterial jurisdiction and completed within another, such offence may be considered as having been committed in any one of such jurisdictions. R. S. C. c. 174, s. 10;

(c) Where the offence is committed on or in respect to a mail, or a person conveying a post letter bag, post letter or anything sent by post, or on any person, or in respect of any property, in or upon any vehicle employed in a journey, or on board any vessel employed on any navigable river, canal or other inland navigation, the person accused shall be considered as having committed such offence in any magisterial jurisdiction through which such vehicle or vessel passed in the course of the journey or voyage during which the offence was committed: and where the centre or other part of the road, or any navigable river, canal or other inland navigation along which the vehicle or vessel passed in the course of such journey or voyage, is the boundary of two or more magisterial jurisdictions, the person accused of having committed the offence may be considered as having committed it in any one of such jurisdictions. R. S. C. c. 174, ss. 11-12, and c. 35, s. 110.

Sub-section (b) is taken from the 7 Geo. IV., c. 61, s. 12 of the Imperial Acts, with the substitution of five hundred yards for one mile.

That distance is to be measured in a direct line from the border, and not by the nearest road: R. v. Wood, 5 Jur. 225.

This clause does not enable the prosecutor to lay the offence in one county and try it in the other, but only to lay and try it in either: R. v. Mitchell, 2 Q. B. 636. See also on this clause: R. v. Jones, 1 Den. 551; R. v. Leech, Dears. 642.

Murder, like all other offences, must regularly, according to the common law, be inquired of in the county in

which it was committed. It appears, however, to have been a matter of doubt at the common law whether, when a man died in one county of a stroke received in another, the offence could be considered as having been completely committed in either county; but by the 2 & 3 Edw. VI. c. 24, 8. 2, it was enacted that the trial should be in the county where the death happened.

Under the said s-s. (b), where the blow is given in one county, and the death takes place in another, the trial may be in either of these counties: 1 Russ. 753. This applies to coroners, when a felony has been committed, but not when the death is the result of an accident: R. v. Great Western Railway Company, 3 Q. B. 333 and note by Greaves, 1 Russ. 754; R. v. Grand Junction R. Co., 11 A. & E. 128.

Sub-section (c) is taken from the 7 Geo. IV. c. 64, 8. 13, of the Imperial Statutes.

This enactment is not confined in its operation to the carriages of common carriers or to public conveyances, but if property is stolen from any carriage employed on any journey the offender may, by virtue of the above section, be tried in any county through any part whereof such carriage shall have passed in the course of the journey during which such offence shall have been committed: R. v. Sharpe, Dears. 415.

As to the effect of the words "in or upon " in this section, see R. v. Sharpe, 2 Lewin 233.

Where the evidence is consistent with the fact of an article having been abstracted from a railway carriage, either in the course of the journey through the county of A., or after its arrival at its ultimate destination in the county of B., and the prisoner is indicted under the above section, the case must go to the jury, who are to say whether they are satisfied that the larceny was committed in the course of the journey or afterwards: R. v. Pierce, 6 Cox, 117.

WHEN JUSTICE MAY COMPEL APPEARANCE.

554. Every justice may issue a warrant or summons as hereinafter mentioned to compel the attendance of an accused person before him, for the purpose of preliminary inquiry in any of the following cases:

(a) If such person is accused of having committed in any place whatever an indictable offence triable in the province in which such justice resides, and is, or is suspected to be, within the limits over which such justice has jurisdiction, or resides or is suspected to reside within such limits;

(b) If such person, wherever he may be, is accused of having committed an indictable offence within such limits;

(c) If such person is alleged to have anywhere unlawfully received property which was unlawfully obtained within such limits;

(d) If such person has in his possession, within such limits, any stolen property.

What are the offences committed out of a province that are triable in that province? This Code does not say.

OFFENCES IN CERTAIN PARTS OF ONTARIO.

555. All offences committed in any of the unorganized tracts of country in the province of Ontario, including lakes, rivers and other waters therein, not embraced within the limits of any organized county, or within any provisional judicial district, may be laid and charged to have been committed and may be inquired of, tried and punished within any county of such province; and such offences shall be within the jurisdiction of any court having jurisdiction over offences of the like nature committed within the limits of such county, before which court such offences may be prosecuted; and such court shall proceed therein to trial, judgment and execution or other punishment for such offence, in the same manner as if such offence had been committed within the county where such trial is had.

2. When any provisional judicial district or new county is formed and established in any of such unorganized tracts, all offences committed within the limits of such provisional judicial district or new county, shall be inquired of, tried and punished within the same, in like manner as such offences would have been inquired of, tried and punished if this section had not been passed.

3. Any person accused or convicted of any offence in any such provisional district may be committed to any common gaol in the province of Ontario; and the constable or other officer having charge of such person and intrusted with his conveyance to any such common gaol, may pass through any county in such province with such person in his custody; and the keeper of the common gaol of any county in such province in which it is found necessary to lodge for safe keeping any such person so being conveyed through such county in custody, shall receive such person and safely keep and detain him in such common gaol for such period as is reasonable or necessary; and the keeper of any common gaol in such province, to which any such person is committed as aforesaid, shall receive such person and safely keep and detain him in such common gaol under his custody until discharged in due course of law, or bailed in cases in which bail may by law be taken. R. S. C. c. 174, s. 14.

OFFENCES IN GASPE.

556. Whenever any offence is committed in the district of Gaspe, the offender, if committed to gaol before trial, may be committed to the common gaol of the county in which the offence was committed, or may, in law, be deemed to have been committed, and if tried before the Court of Queen's Bench, he shall be so tried at the sitting of such court held in the county to the gaol of which he has been committed, and if imprisoned in the common gaol after trial he shall be so imprisoned in the common gaol of the county in which he has been tried. R. S. C. c. 174, s. 15.

OFFENCES COMMITTED OUT OF JURISDICTION. (Amended).

557. The preliminary inquiry may be held either by one justice or by more justices than one : Provided that if the accused person is brought before any justice charged with an offence committed out of the limits of the juris diction of such justice, such justice may, after hearing both sides, order the accused at any stage of the inquiry to be taken by a constable before some justice having jurisdiction in the place where the offence was committed. The justice so ordering shall give a warrant for that purpose to a constable, which may be in the form A in schedule one hereto, or to the like effect, and shall deliver to such constable the information, depositions and recognizances if any taken under the provisions of this Act, to be delivered to the justice before whom the accused person is to be taken, and such depositions and recognizances shall be treated to all intents as if they had been taken by the last-mentioned justice.

2. Upon the constable delivering to the justice the warrant, information, if any, depositions and recognizances, and proving on oath or affirmation, the handwriting of the justice who has subscribed the same, such justice, before whom the accused is produced, shall thereupon furnish such constable with a receipt or certificate in the form B in schedule one hereto, of his having received from him the body of the accused, together with the warrant, infor mation, if any, depositions and recognizances, and of his having proved to him, upon oath or affirmation, the handwriting of the justice who issued the

warrant.

4. If such justice does not commit the accused for trial, or hold him to bail, the recognizances taken before the first mentioned justice shall be void.

A. (Section 557.)

WARRANT TO CONVEY BEFORE A JUSTICE OF ANOTHER COUNTY.

Canada,

Province of

County of

Whereas information upon oath was this day made before the undersigned that A. B. of

on the

day of in the county of

And whereas I have taken the deposition of X. Y. as to the said offence.

And whereas the charge is of an offence committed in the county of

of

This is to command you to convey the said (name of accused), , before some justice of the last-mentioned county, near the above place, and to deliver to him this warrant and the said deposition.

RECEIPT TO BE GIVEN TO THE CONSTABLE BY THE JUSTICE FOR THE COUNTY IN WHICH THE OFFENCE WAS

Canada,

Province of

County of

COMMITTED.

I, J. L., a justice of the peace in and for the county of

hereby certify that W. T., peace officer of the county

by virtue of and in obedience to a warrant of J. S., Esquire, a justice of the peace in and for the county of produced before me one A. B., charged before the said J. S. with having (etc., stating shortly the offence), and delivered him into the custody of by my direction, to answer to the said charge, and further to be dealt with according to law, and has also delivered unto me the said warrant, together with the information (if any) in that behalf, and the deposition (s) of C. D. (and of ), in said warrant mentioned, and that he has also proved to me, upon oath, the handwriting of the said J. S. subscribed to the same.

Dated the day and year first above mentioned, at in the said county of

J. L.,

J. P., (Name of county.)