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Is there a de minimis defence available in assault cases?

Is there a de minimis defence to assault under Canadian law? Actually the question might be asked what status such a defence (its name comes from the latin tag de minimis non curat lex: the law does not concern itself with trifles) has to any criminal offence in this country. But in a pair of recent decisions it has come up in the context of assault so that’s what I’ll look at here. It might seem a defence ill-suited to a charge of assault, but in fact common assault covers a very wi read more

Full post as published by Criminal Review on November 08, 2008 (boomark / email).