FRAUDS ON THE GOVERNMENT. (Art. 133.) INCITING TO MUTINY. (Art. 72) LIBELS ON FOREIGN SOVEREIGNS. (Art. 125.) MURDER ACCESSORY AFTER THE FACT TO MURDER; AND ATTEMPTS, CONSPIRACIES, AND THREATS TO MURDER. (Arts. 231 to 235.) PIRACY. (Arts. 127 to 130.) RAPE; AND ATTEMPT TO RAPE. (Arts. 267, 268.) SELLING OR PURCHASING OFFICES. (Art. 137 a.) SPREADING FALSE NEWS. (Art. 126.) TREASON ACCESSORY AFTER THE FACT TO TREASON; AND TREASONABLE OFFENCES. (Arts. 65, 67, 68, 69, 70.) UNLAWFULLY OBTAINING AND COMMUNICATING OFFICIAL INFORMATION. (Art. 77.) CONSPIRING TO COMMIT, ATTEMPTING TO COMMIT, OR BEING AC CESSORY AFTER THE FACT TO ANY OF THE ABOVE OFFENCES. Article 540, as originally passed, included the offences punishable under Articles 159 to 169 of the code (Escapes and Rescues), as being within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Superior Courts. At the last session of the Dominion Parliament this was altered, so as to give the General or Quarter Sessions concurrent jurisdiction over them. (1) Concurrent Jurisdiction of General or Quarter Sessions. All indictable offences, other than those above enumerated as being within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Superior Courts, may be tried either by a Superior Court of criminal jurisdiction, or by any Court of General or Quarter Sessions of the Peace, when presided over by a Superior Court judge or a County or District Court judge, or—in the cities of Montreal and Quebec-by a recorder or a judge of the Sessions of the Peace; and, in the province of New Brunswick, they may be tried by any County Court judge. (Code, Art. 539.) (1) 57 & 58 Vic. c. 57, sec. 1. Where Offenders may be Tried.—Subject to Articles 538, 539 and 540, every court of criminal jurisdiction in Canada is competent to try all offences, wherever committed, if the accused is found or apprehended within the jurisdiction of such court, or if he has been committed for trial to such court or ordered to be tried before such court, or before any other court, the jurisdiction of which has by lawful authority been transferred to such first mentioned court under any Act for the time being in force: Provided that nothing in this Act authorizes any court in one province of Canada to try any person for any offence committed entirely in another province, except in the following case: Every proprietor, publisher, editor or other person charged with the publication in a newspaper of any defamatory libel, shall be dealt with, indicted, tried and punished in the province in which he resides, or in which such newspaper is printed. (Code, Art. 640). The words "all offences wherever committed" used in this Article, must be interpreted to mean offences committed wherever the criminal law of Canada extends. (1) Magisterial Jurisdiction - Of the many duties and functions devolving upon, and exerciseable by, magistrates and justices of the peace, the most important are: 1, the ministerial functions which they exercise in the preliminary investigation of indictable offences triable before a jury; 2, the ministerial and judicial functions which they exercise at and in connection with the summary trial, without a jury, of non-indictable offences, and of indictable offences subjected under special conditions to their summary jurisdiction; and, 3, the judicial functions exercised by the magistrates authorized, under Article 539, to preside at the trial of the indictable offences which are within the jurisdiction of the General or Quarter Sessions. The preliminary investigation of indictable offences may, under the Code, be initiated by and be held before a single justice of the peace or more justices than one; (2) the indictable offences rendered subject to summary trial under certain special conditions, are triable before a magistrate or other functionary or tribunal having (1) McLeod v. Attorney-Gen. N. S. Wales, 14 L. N. 402-405. (2) Code, Arts. 554, 557, pp. 101, 103, post. the powers of two justices of the peace; (1) and, in the summary trial of non-indictable offences, a single justice will have jurisdiction, unless, by the enactment under which the offenee is triable summarily, two or more justices are specified. (2) Exercising the Powers of Two Justices,—The judge of the Sessions of the Peace for the city of Quebec, the judge of the Sessions of the Peace for the city of Montreal, and every recorder, police magistrate, district magistrate or stipendiary magistrate appointed for any territorial division, and every magistrate authorized, by the law of the Province in which he acts, to perform acts usually required to be done by two or more justices of the peace, may do alone whatever is authorized by this Act to be done by any two or more justices of the peace, and the several forms contained in the Code may be varied as far as necessary to render them applicable to such case. (Art. 541.) North-West Territories and Keewatin.-The provisions of the Criminal Code extend to and are in force in the North-West Territories and the District of Keewatin, except in so far as they are inconsistent with the provisions of the North-West Territories Act or the Keewatin Act and the amendments thereto. (3) Under the North- West Territories Act, the judges of the Supreme Court of the Territories are vested with all the powers, authority and jurisdiction vested, before the passing of the Act, in the stipendiary magistrates of the Territories; and the GovernorGeneral in Council may appoint police Magistrates in the Territories with all the powers of two justices of the peace. (4) Every judge of the Supreme Court of the North West Territories is given and exercises the powers of a justice of the peace, or of any two justices of the peace under any laws or ordinances in force in the territories; (5) and every such judge has also the same (4) R. S. C., c. 50, sec. 54; 57 & 58 Vic., c. 17, sec. 7. See p. 18, ante. (5) R. S. C., c. 50,, sec. 66. power and authority for trying offences in the district of Keewatin as if appointed a stipendiary magistrate under the Keewatin Act. (1) Offences against the Unorganised Territories' Game Preservation Act, 1894, may (after the 1st January, 1896) be summarily tried by (a.) Any judge of the Supreme Court of the North-west Terri tories. (b.) Any justice of the peace in and for the North-west Terri tories. (c.) Any commissioned officer of the North-west Mounted Police. (d.) Any game guardian appointed under the Act. (2) Fishery Officers.-Under the Fisheries Act, any fishery officer or other justice of the peace may, on view, convict of any of the offences punishable under the provisions of the Act. (3) Local Jurisdiction as to Offences Committed under Special Circumstances.—For the purposes of the Code, 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; (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; (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 (1) R. S. C., c. 53, sec. 28. 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. (Code, Art. 553) This Article is, in effect, a re-enactment of sections 10, 11, and 12 of R. S. C., c. 174, which were derived from sections 12 and 13 of the Imperial statute, 7 Geo. 4, c. 64, clause (b) being only slightly varied from the wording of section 12 of 7 Geo. 4, c. 64, which is as follows: "Where a felony or misdemeanor is committed on the boundary of two or more counties, or within the distance of five hundred yards from any such boundary or is begun in one county and completed in another, the venue may be laid in either county, in the same manner as if it had been committed therein." In cases of murder or manslaughter, where the cause of death arises in one magisterial jurisdiction and the death takes place in another, the prisoner may, under the above Article, be indicted. in either jurisdiction. (1) If a man commit theft in one magisterial jurisdiction and carry the stolen goods with him into another, he may be indicted within the limits of the jurisdiction where he committed it, or in the place into which, or any of the places through which he carried the goods; for in contemplation of law there is such a taking and carrying away as to constitute the offence of theft in every place through which, at any distance of time, the goods were carried by him. (2) For instance, where a prisoner, on the 4th of November, stole a note in Yorkshire, and, upon the 4th of March, he carried it into Durham, the judges were clear, upon a case reserved, that the interval between the first taking and carrying the note into Durham did not prevent it from being a theft in Durham, and that the conviction in that county was right. (3) (1) 1 Russ. Cr. (by Greaves), 4 Ed. 753. (2) 1 Hale, 507; 2 Hale, 163; 3 Inst. 113; 4 Bl. Com. 304. (3) R. v. Parkin, 1 Mood. C. C., 45. |