Offences may

the alter

native.

4. Every count shall contain so much detail of the circumstances of the alleged offence as is sufficient to give the accused reasonable information as to the act or omission to be proved against him, and to identify the transaction referred to Provided that the absence or insufficiency of such details shall not vitiate the count.

5. A count may refer to any section or subsection of any statute creating the offence charged therein, and in estimating the sufficiency of such count the court shall have regard to such reference.

6. Every count shall in general apply only to a single transaction.

612. A count shall not be deemed objectionable on the be charged in ground that it charges in the alternative several different matters, acts or omissions which are stated in the alternative in the enactment describing any indictable offence or declaring the matters, acts or omissions charged to be an indictable offence, or on the ground that it is double or multifarious: Provided that the accused may at any stage of the trial apply to the court to amend or divide any such count on the ground that it is so framed as to embarrass him in his defence.

Certain objections not to vitiate counts.

Indictment for high

treason or

2. The court, if satisfied that the ends of justice require it, may order any count to be amended or divided into two or more counts, and on such order being made such count shall be so divided or amended, and thereupon a formal commencement may be inserted before each of the counts into which it is divided.

613. No count shall be deemed objectionable or insufficient on any of the following grounds; that is to say:

(a.) that it does not contain the name of the person injured, or intended, or attempted to be injured; or

(b.) that it does not state who is the owner of any property therein mentioned; or

(c.) that it charges an intent to defraud without naming or describing the person whom it was intended to defraud; or

(d.) that it does not set out any document which may be the subject of the charge; or

(e.) that it does not set out the words used where words used are the subject of the charge; or

(f) that it does not specify the means by which the offence was committed; or

(g.) that it does not name or describe with precision any person, place or thing:

Provided that the court may, if satisfied that it is necessary for a fair trial, order that a particular further describing such document, words, means, person, place or thing be furnished by the prosecutor.

614. Every indictment for treason or for any offence against Part IV. of this Act must state overt acts, and no

offence.

evidence shall be admitted of any overt act not stated unless treasonable it is otherwise relevant as tending to prove some overt act stated.

2. The power of amending indictments herein contained shall not extend to authorize the court to add to the overt acts stated in the indictment.

for libel.

615. No count for publishing a blasphemous, seditious, Indictments obscene or defamatory libel, or for selling or exhibiting an obscene book, pamphlet, newspaper or other printed or written matter, shall be deemed insufficient on the ground that it does not set out the words thereof: Provided that the court may order that a particular shall be furnished by the prosecutor stating what passages in such book, pamphlet, newspaper, printing or writing are relied on in support of the charge.

2. A count for libel may charge that the matter published was written in a sense which would make the publishing criminal, specifying that sense without any prefatory averment showing how that matter was written in that sense. And on the trial it shall be sufficient to prove that the matter published was criminal either with or without such innuendo.

for perjury

616. No count charging perjury, the making of a false oath Indictments or of a false statement, fabricating evidence or subornation, or and certain procuring the commission of any of these offences, shall be other offences. deemed insufficient on the ground that it does not state the nature of the authority of the tribunal before which the oath or statement was taken or made, or the subject of the inquiry, or the words used or the evidence fabricated, or on the ground that it does not expressly negative the truth of the words used: Provided that the court may, if satisfied that it is necessary for a fair trial, order that the prosecutor shall furnish a particular of what is relied on in support of the charge.

2. No count which charges any false pretense, or any fraud, or any attempt or conspiracy by fraudulent means, shall be deemed insufficient because it does not set out in detail in what the false pretenses or the fraud or fraudulent means consisted Provided that the court may, if satisfied as aforesaid, order that the prosecutor shall furnish a particular of the above matters or any of them.

3. No provision herein before contained in this part as to matters which are not to render any count objectionable or insufficient shall be construed as restricting or limiting in any way the general provisions of section six hundred and eleven. R.S.C., c. 174, s. 107.

617. When any such particular as aforesaid is delivered a Particulars. copy shall be given without charge to the accused or his

solicitor, and it shall be entered in the record and the trial

Indictment for pretending to send money, &c., in letter.

Indictments in certain

cases.

Property of body corporate.

Indictment for stealing

ores or minerals.

shall proceed in all respects as if the indictment had been amended in conformity with such particular.

2. In determining whether a particular is required or not, and whether a defect in the indictment is material to the substantial justice of the case or not, the court may have regard to the depositions.

618. It shall not be necessary to allege, in any indictment against any person for wrongfully and wilfully pretending or alleging that he inclosed and sent, or caused to be inclosed and sent, in any post letter, any money, valuable security or chattel, or to prove on the trial, that the act was done with intent to defraud. R.S.C., c. 174, s. 113.

619. An indictment shall be deemed sufficient in the cases following:

(a.) If it be necessary to name the joint owners of any real or personal property, whether the same be partners, joint tenants, parceners, tenants in common, joint stock companies or trustees, and it is alleged that the property belongs to one who is named, and another or others as the case may be ;

(b.) If it is necessary for any purpose to mention such persons and one only is named;

(c.) If the property in a turnpike road is laid in the trustees or commissioners thereof without specifying the names of such trustees or commissioners;

(d.) If the offence is committed in respect to any property in the occupation or under the management of any public officer or commissioner, and the property is alleged to belong to such officer or commissioner without naming him;

(e.) If, for an offence under section three hundred and thirty-four, the oyster bed, laying or fishery is described by name or otherwise, without stating the same to be in any particular county or place. R.S.C., c. 174, ss. 118, 119, 120, 121 and 123.

620. All property, real and personal, whereof any body corporate has, by law, the management, control or custody, shall, for the purpose of any indictment or proceeding against any other person for any offence committed on or in respect thereof, be deemed to be the property of such body corporate. R.S.C., c. 174, s. 122.

621. In any indictment for any offence mentioned in sections three hundred and forty-three or three hundred and seventy-five of this Act, it shall be sufficient to lay the property in Her Majesty, or in any person or corporation, in different counts in such indictment; and any variance in the latter case, between the statement in the indictment and the evidence adduced, may be amended at the trial; and if no owner is proved the indictment may be amended by laying the property in Her Majesty. R.S.Č., c. 174, s. 124.

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 any tenant or for stealing by house or lodging, or who steals any fixture so let to be lodger.

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

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