|
Canada
has a criminal code which sets out the Country’s
criminal offences, the principles of criminal liability
and prosecution procedures. Criminal law reforms tend
to be amendments to this code.
The code states that companies and public bodies are
already subject to the criminal offences within the
code.
The
Code contains two offences that are relevant to work-related
death and injury
| Causing
death by criminal negligence |
"Every
person who by criminal negligence causes death
of another person is guilty of an indictable offence
and liable … to imprisonment for life”
|
| Causing
Bodily Harm by Criminal Negligence |
"Every
person who by criminal negligence causes bodily
harm to another person is guilty of an indictable
offence and liable to imprisonment for a term
not exceeding ten years.” |
In
determining the circumstances in which a company could
be prosecuted, the Canadian courts developed principles
similar to those that currently operate in Britain
– i.e. the identification doctrine. A company
could be prosecuted if it could be shown that one
of its “directing minds” had committed the
offence. However, unlike in Britain it was also necessary
to show that the action taken by this person was:
| • |
within
the field of operation assigned to him (which
may the court said be functional, or geographic,
or may embrace the entire undertaking of the corporation); |
| • |
not
totally in fraud of the company; |
| • |
by
design or result partly for the benefit of the
company [1] |
Another
Canadian Supreme Court decision had held that the
key factor that distinguishes directing minds from
normal employees is the capacity to exercise decision-making
authority on matters of corporate policy, rather than
merely to give effect to such policy on an operational
basis. [2]
It
should be noted that the new reforms leave the relevant
offences themselves unchanged
[1]
see case of Canadian Dredge and Dock [1985] 1 S.C.R.
662
[2]
Rhone v Peter A.B. Widener [1993] 1 S.C.R. 497
|
