Corrections and Conditional Release Act

Marginal note:Suspension of parole or statutory release

• 135 (1) A member of the Board or a person, designated by name or by position, by the Chairperson of the Board or by the Commissioner, when an offender breaches a condition of parole or statutory release or when the member or person is satisfied that it is necessary and reasonable to suspend the parole or statutory release in order to prevent a breach of any condition thereof or to protect society, may, by warrant,

  • (a) suspend the parole or statutory release;

  • (b) authorize the apprehension of the offender; and

  • (c) authorize the recommitment of the offender to custody until the suspension is cancelled, the parole or statutory release is terminated or revoked or the sentence of the offender has expired according to law.

• Marginal note:Automatic suspension of parole or statutory release

  (1.1) If an offender who is on parole or statutory release receives an additional sentence, other than a conditional sentence under section 742.1 of the Criminal Code that is being served in the community or an intermittent sentence under section 732 of that Act, for an offence under an Act of Parliament, their parole or statutory release, as the case may be, is suspended on the day on which the additional sentence is imposed.

• Marginal note:Apprehension and recommitment

  (1.2) If an offender’s parole or statutory release is suspended under subsection (1.1), a member of the Board or a person designated, by name or position, by the Chairperson of the Board or the Commissioner may, by warrant, authorize the offender’s apprehension and recommitment to custody until

  • (a) the suspension is cancelled;

  • (b) the parole or statutory release is terminated or revoked; or

  • (c) the sentence expires according to law.

• Marginal note:Transfer of offender

  (2) A person designated under subsection (1) may, by warrant, order the transfer to a penitentiary of an offender who is recommitted to custody under subsection (1) or (1.2) or as a result of an additional sentence referred to in subsection (1.1) in a place other than a penitentiary.

• Marginal note:Cancellation of suspension or referral

  (3) Subject to subsection (3.1), the person who signs a warrant under subsection (1) or any other person designated under that subsection shall, immediately after the recommitment of the offender, review the offender’s case and

  • (a) where the offender is serving a sentence of less than two years, cancel the suspension or refer the case to the Board together with an assessment of the case, within fourteen days after the recommitment or such shorter period as the Board directs; or

  • (b) in any other case, within thirty days after the recommitment or such shorter period as the Board directs, cancel the suspension or refer the case to the Board together with an assessment of the case stating the conditions, if any, under which the offender could in that person’s opinion reasonably be returned to parole or statutory release.

• Marginal note:Referral to Board — additional sentence

  (3.1) If an offender’s parole or statutory release is suspended under subsection (1.1), or if an offender whose parole or statutory release is suspended under subsection (1) receives an additional sentence referred to in subsection (1.1), the suspension may not be cancelled and the case is to be referred to the Board by a person designated by name or position by the Commissioner, together with an assessment of the case, within the applicable number of days set out in subsection (3).

• Marginal note:Review by Board

  (4) The Board shall, on the referral to it of the case of an offender serving a sentence of less than two years, review the case and, within the period prescribed by the regulations, either cancel the suspension or terminate or revoke the parole.

• Marginal note:Review by Board — sentence of two years or more

  (5) The Board shall, on the referral to it of the case of an offender who is serving a sentence of two years or more, review the case and — within the period prescribed by the regulations unless, at the offender’s request, the review is adjourned by the Board or is postponed by a member of the Board or by a person designated by the Chairperson by name or position —

  • (a) if the Board is satisfied that the offender will, by reoffending before the expiration of their sentence according to law, present an undue risk to society,

    • (i) terminate the parole or statutory release if the undue risk is due to circumstances beyond the offender’s control, and

    • (ii) revoke it in any other case;

  • (b) if the Board is not satisfied as in paragraph (a), cancel the suspension; and

  • (c) if the offender is no longer eligible for parole or entitled to be released on statutory release, cancel the suspension or terminate or revoke the parole or statutory release.

• Marginal note:Terms of cancellation

  (6) If in the Board’s opinion it is necessary and reasonable to do so in order to protect society or to facilitate the reintegration of the offender into society, the Board, when it cancels a suspension of the parole or statutory release of an offender, may

  • (a) reprimand the offender in order to warn the offender of the Board’s dissatisfaction with the offender’s behaviour since release;

  • (b) alter the conditions of the parole or statutory release; and

  • (c) order the cancellation not to take effect until the expiration of a specified period not exceeding thirty days after the date of the Board’s decision, where the offender violated the conditions of parole or statutory release on the occasion of the suspension and on at least one previous occasion that led to a suspension of parole or statutory release during the offender’s sentence.

• Marginal note:Transmission of cancellation of suspension

  (6.1) Where a person referred to in subsection (3) or the Board cancels a suspension under this section, the person or the Board, as the case may be, shall forward a notification of the cancellation of the suspension or an electronically transmitted copy of the notification to the person in charge of the facility in which the offender is being held.

• Marginal note:If parole eligibility date in future

  (6.2) If the Board cancels a suspension of parole under subsection (5) and the day on which the offender is eligible for parole, determined in accordance with any of sections 119 to 120.3, is later than the day on which the parole suspension is cancelled, the day or full parole is, subject to subsection (6.3), resumed on the day parole eligibility date or the full parole eligibility date, as the case may be.

• Marginal note:Cancellation of parole — parole eligibility date in future

  (6.3) If an offender’s parole is to resume under subsection (6.2), the Board may — before the parole resumes and after a review of the case based on information with which it could not reasonably have been provided at the time the parole suspension was cancelled — cancel the parole or, if the offender has been released, terminate the parole.

• Marginal note:Review

  (6.4) If the Board exercises its power under subsection (6.3), it shall, within the period prescribed by the regulations, review its decision and either confirm or cancel it.

• Marginal note:Additional power of the Board

  (7) Independently of subsections (1) to (6), where the Board is satisfied that the continued parole or statutory release of an offender would constitute an undue risk to society by reason of the offender reoffending before the expiration of the sentence according to law, the Board may, at any time,

  • (a) where the offender is no longer eligible for the parole or entitled to be released on statutory release, terminate or revoke the parole or statutory release; or

  • (b) where the offender is still eligible for the parole or entitled to be released on statutory release,

    • (i) terminate the parole or statutory release, where the undue risk to society is due to circumstances beyond the offender’s control, or

    • (ii) revoke the parole or statutory release, where the undue risk to society is due to circumstances within the offender’s control.

• Marginal note:Power not affected by new sentence

  (8) The Board may exercise its power under subsection (7) notwithstanding any new sentence to which the offender becomes subject after being released on parole or statutory release, whether or not the new sentence is in respect of an offence committed before or after the offender’s release on parole or statutory release.

• Marginal note:Review by Board

  (9) Where the Board exercises its power under subsection (7), it shall review its decision at times prescribed by the regulations, at which times it shall either confirm or cancel its decision.

• Marginal note:Non-application of subsection (1.1)

  (9.1) Unless the lieutenant governor in council of a province in which there is a provincial parole board makes a declaration under subsection 113(1) that subsection (1.1) applies in respect of offenders under the jurisdiction of that provincial parole board, subsection (1.1) does not apply in respect of such offenders, other than an offender who

  • (a) is serving a sentence in a provincial correctional facility pursuant to an agreement entered into under paragraph 16(1)(a); or

  • (b) as a result of receiving an additional sentence referred to in subsection (1.1), is required, under section 743.1 of the Criminal Code, to serve the sentence in a penitentiary.

• Marginal note:Parole inoperative

  (9.2) If an offender to whom subsection (1.1) does not apply, and who is on parole that has not been revoked or terminated, receives an additional sentence that is to be served consecutively with the sentence the offender was serving when the additional sentence was imposed, the parole becomes inoperative and the offender shall be reincarcerated until the day on which the offender has served, from the day on which the additional sentence was imposed, the period of ineligibility in relation to the additional sentence. On that day, the parole is resumed, subject to the provisions of this Act, unless, before that day, the parole has been revoked or terminated.

• (9.3) to (9.5) [Repealed, 2012, c. 1, s. 89]

• Marginal note:Continuation of sentence

  (10) For the purposes of this Part, an offender who is in custody by virtue of this section continues to serve the offender’s sentence.

• Marginal note:Time at large during suspension

  (11) For the purposes of this Act, where a suspension of parole or statutory release is cancelled, the offender is deemed, during the period beginning on the day of the issuance of the suspension and ending on the day of the cancellation of the suspension, to have been serving the sentence to which the parole or statutory release applies.