Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre wants the government to amend the Criminal Code to say that the use of force is presumed to be reasonable to defend your home if someone breaks into it.
He says if the government doesn’t do this, his party will introduce a private member’s bill aimed at making the change this fall during a press conference in Brampton, Ont.
“It is wrong for the law, for the police and for judges to apply a complicated, indecipherable legal doctrine against you when you are only doing what is right,” said Poilievre speaking at the press conference.
“Our amendment, instead, will change Section 34.2 of the Criminal Code to say that the use of force, including lethal force, is presumed reasonable against an individual who unlawfully enters a house and poses a threat to the safety of anyone inside.”
This comes after a 44-year-old Lindsay, Ont. man was charged with assault in an altercation after a man with a crossbow allegedly broke into his apartment.
The alleged intruder, a 41-year-old man also from Lindsay, was airlifted to hospital in Toronto with life-threatening injuries.
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The chief of the Kawartha Lakes Police Service has defended the assault charge against the victim of the alleged break-in, saying defensive action must be proportionate to the threat faced.
The Criminal Code says that someone is allowed to protect themselves in a break-in as long as force used is “reasonable in the circumstances.”
– With files from Global News’ Ari Rabinovitch
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