Criminal Code (R.S.C., 1985, c. C-46)

Marginal note:Release from custody by officer in charge where arrest made with warrant

• 499 (1) Where a person who has been arrested with a warrant by a peace officer is taken into custody for an offence other than one mentioned in section 522, the officer in charge may, if the warrant has been endorsed by a justice under subsection 507(6),

  • (a) release the person on the person’s giving a promise to appear;

  • (b) release the person on the person’s entering into a recognizance before the officer in charge without sureties in the amount not exceeding five hundred dollars that the officer in charge directs, but without deposit of money or other valuable security; or

  • (c) if the person is not ordinarily resident in the province in which the person is in custody or does not ordinarily reside within two hundred kilometres of the place in which the person is in custody, release the person on the person’s entering into a recognizance before the officer in charge without sureties in the amount not exceeding five hundred dollars that the officer in charge directs and, if the officer in charge so directs, on depositing with the officer in charge such sum of money or other valuable security not exceeding in amount or value five hundred dollars, as the officer in charge directs.

• Marginal note:Additional conditions

  (2) In addition to the conditions for release set out in paragraphs (1)(a), (b) and (c), the officer in charge may also require the person to enter into an undertaking in Form 11.1 in which the person, in order to be released, undertakes to do one or more of the following things:

  • (a) to remain within a territorial jurisdiction specified in the undertaking;

  • (b) to notify a peace officer or another person mentioned in the undertaking of any change in his or her address, employment or occupation;

  • (c) to abstain from communicating, directly or indirectly, with any victim, witness or other person identified in the undertaking, or from going to a place specified in the undertaking, except in accordance with the conditions specified in the undertaking;

  • (d) to deposit the person’s passport with the peace officer or other person mentioned in the undertaking;

  • (e) to abstain from possessing a firearm and to surrender any firearm in the possession of the person and any authorization, licence or registration certificate or other document enabling that person to acquire or possess a firearm;

  • (f) to report at the times specified in the undertaking to a peace officer or other person designated in the undertaking;

  • (g) to abstain from

    • (i) the consumption of alcohol or other intoxicating substances, or

    • (ii) the consumption of drugs except in accordance with a medical prescription; and

  • (h) to comply with any other condition specified in the undertaking that the officer in charge considers necessary to ensure the safety and security of any victim of or witness to the offence.

• Marginal note:Application to justice

  (3) A person who has entered into an undertaking under subsection (2) may, at any time before or at his or her appearance pursuant to a promise to appear or recognizance, apply to a justice for an order under subsection 515(1) to replace his or her undertaking, and section 515 applies, with such modifications as the circumstances require, to such a person.

• Marginal note:Application by prosecutor

  (4) Where a person has entered into an undertaking under subsection (2), the prosecutor may

  • (a) at any time before the appearance of the person pursuant to a promise to appear or recognizance, after three days notice has been given to that person, or

  • (b) at the appearance,

  apply to a justice for an order under subsection 515(2) to replace the undertaking, and section 515 applies, with such modifications as the circumstances require, to such a person.

Marginal note:Money or other valuable security to be deposited with justice

500 If a person has, under paragraph 498(1)(d) or 499(1)(c), deposited any sum of money or other valuable security with the officer in charge, the officer in charge shall, without delay after the deposit, cause the money or valuable security to be delivered to a justice for deposit with the justice.

Marginal note:Contents of appearance notice, promise to appear and recognizance

• 501 (1) An appearance notice issued by a peace officer or a promise to appear given to, or a recognizance entered into before, an officer in charge or another peace officer shall

  • (a) set out the name of the accused;

  • (b) set out the substance of the offence that the accused is alleged to have committed; and

  • (c) require the accused to attend court at a time and place to be stated therein and to attend thereafter as required by the court in order to be dealt with according to law.

• Marginal note:Idem

  (2) An appearance notice issued by a peace officer or a promise to appear given to, or a recognizance entered into before, an officer in charge or another peace officer shall set out the text of subsections 145(5) and (6) and section 502.

• Marginal note:Attendance for purposes of Identification of Criminals Act

  (3) An appearance notice issued by a peace officer or a promise to appear given to, or a recognizance entered into before, an officer in charge or another peace officer may require the accused to appear at a time and place stated in it for the purposes of the Identification of Criminals Act, where the accused is alleged to have committed an indictable offence and, in the case of an offence designated as a contravention under the Contraventions Act, the Attorney General, within the meaning of that Act, has not made an election under section 50 of that Act.

• Marginal note:Signature of accused

  (4) An accused shall be requested to sign in duplicate his appearance notice, promise to appear or recognizance and, whether or not he complies with that request, one of the duplicates shall be given to the accused, but if the accused fails or refuses to sign, the lack of his signature does not invalidate the appearance notice, promise to appear or recognizance, as the case may be.

• (5) [Repealed, 2008, c. 18, s. 15]

Marginal note:Failure to appear

502 Where an accused who is required by an appearance notice or promise to appear or by a recognizance entered into before an officer in charge or another peace officer to appear at a time and place stated therein for the purposes of the Identification of Criminals Act does not appear at that time and place, a justice may, where the appearance notice, promise to appear or recognizance has been confirmed by a justice under section 508, issue a warrant for the arrest of the accused for the offence with which the accused is charged.

Appearance of Accused before Justice

Marginal note:Taking before justice

• 503 (1) A peace officer who arrests a person with or without warrant or to whom a person is delivered under subsection 494(3) or into whose custody a person is placed under subsection 163.5(3) of the Customs Act shall cause the person to be detained in custody and, in accordance with the following provisions, to be taken before a justice to be dealt with according to law:

  • (a) where a justice is available within a period of twenty-four hours after the person has been arrested by or delivered to the peace officer, the person shall be taken before a justice without unreasonable delay and in any event within that period, and

  • (b) where a justice is not available within a period of twenty-four hours after the person has been arrested by or delivered to the peace officer, the person shall be taken before a justice as soon as possible,

  unless, at any time before the expiration of the time prescribed in paragraph (a) or (b) for taking the person before a justice,

  • (c) the peace officer or officer in charge releases the person under any other provision of this Part, or

  • (d) the peace officer or officer in charge is satisfied that the person should be released from custody, whether unconditionally under subsection (4) or otherwise conditionally or unconditionally, and so releases him.

• Marginal note:Conditional release

  (2) If a peace officer or an officer in charge is satisfied that a person described in subsection (1) should be released from custody conditionally, the officer may, unless the person is detained in custody for an offence mentioned in section 522, release that person on the person’s giving a promise to appear or entering into a recognizance in accordance with paragraphs 498(1)(b) to (d) and subsection (2.1).

• Marginal note:Undertaking

  (2.1) In addition to the conditions referred to in subsection (2), the peace officer or officer in charge may, in order to release the person, require the person to enter into an undertaking in Form 11.1 in which the person undertakes to do one or more of the following things:

  • (a) to remain within a territorial jurisdiction specified in the undertaking;

  • (b) to notify the peace officer or another person mentioned in the undertaking of any change in his or her address, employment or occupation;

  • (c) to abstain from communicating, directly or indirectly, with any victim, witness or other person identified in the undertaking, or from going to a place specified in the undertaking, except in accordance with the conditions specified in the undertaking;

  • (d) to deposit the person’s passport with the peace officer or other person mentioned in the undertaking;

  • (e) to abstain from possessing a firearm and to surrender any firearm in the possession of the person and any authorization, licence or registration certificate or other document enabling that person to acquire or possess a firearm;

  • (f) to report at the times specified in the undertaking to a peace officer or other person designated in the undertaking;

  • (g) to abstain from

    • (i) the consumption of alcohol or other intoxicating substances, or

    • (ii) the consumption of drugs except in accordance with a medical prescription; or

  • (h) to comply with any other condition specified in the undertaking that the peace officer or officer in charge considers necessary to ensure the safety and security of any victim of or witness to the offence.

• Marginal note:Application to justice

  (2.2) A person who has entered into an undertaking under subsection (2.1) may, at any time before or at his or her appearance pursuant to a promise to appear or recognizance, apply to a justice for an order under subsection 515(1) to replace his or her undertaking, and section 515 applies, with such modifications as the circumstances require, to such a person.

• Marginal note:Application by prosecutor

  (2.3) Where a person has entered into an undertaking under subsection (2.1), the prosecutor may

  • (a) at any time before the appearance of the person pursuant to a promise to appear or recognizance, after three days notice has been given to that person, or

  • (b) at the appearance,

  apply to a justice for an order under subsection 515(2) to replace the undertaking, and section 515 applies, with such modifications as the circumstances require, to such a person.

• Marginal note:Remand in custody for return to jurisdiction where offence alleged to have been committed

  (3) Where a person has been arrested without warrant for an indictable offence alleged to have been committed in Canada outside the territorial division where the arrest took place, the person shall, within the time prescribed in paragraph (1)(a) or (b), be taken before a justice within whose jurisdiction the person was arrested unless, where the offence was alleged to have been committed within the province in which the person was arrested, the person was taken before a justice within whose jurisdiction the offence was alleged to have been committed, and the justice within whose jurisdiction the person was arrested

  • (a) if the justice is not satisfied that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the person arrested is the person alleged to have committed the offence, shall release that person; or

  • (b) if the justice is satisfied that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the person arrested is the person alleged to have committed the offence, may

    • (i) remand the person to the custody of a peace officer to await execution of a warrant for his or her arrest in accordance with section 528, but if no warrant is so executed within a period of six days after the time he or she is remanded to such custody, the person in whose custody he or she then is shall release him or her, or

    • (ii) where the offence was alleged to have been committed within the province in which the person was arrested, order the person to be taken before a justice having jurisdiction with respect to the offence.

• Marginal note:Interim release

  (3.1) Notwithstanding paragraph (3)(b), a justice may, with the consent of the prosecutor, order that the person referred to in subsection (3), pending the execution of a warrant for the arrest of that person, be released

  • (a) unconditionally; or

  • (b) on any of the following terms to which the prosecutor consents, namely,

    • (i) giving an undertaking, including an undertaking to appear at a specified time before the court that has jurisdiction with respect to the indictable offence that the person is alleged to have committed, or

    • (ii) entering into a recognizance described in any of paragraphs 515(2)(a) to (e)

    with such conditions described in subsection 515(4) as the justice considers desirable and to which the prosecutor consents.

• Marginal note:Release of person about to commit indictable offence

  (4) A peace officer or an officer in charge having the custody of a person who has been arrested without warrant as a person about to commit an indictable offence shall release that person unconditionally as soon as practicable after he is satisfied that the continued detention of that person in custody is no longer necessary in order to prevent the commission by him of an indictable offence.

• Marginal note:Consequences of non-release

  (5) Notwithstanding subsection (4), a peace officer or an officer in charge having the custody of a person referred to in that subsection who does not release the person before the expiration of the time prescribed in paragraph (1)(a) or (b) for taking the person before the justice shall be deemed to be acting lawfully and in the execution of his duty for the purposes of

  • (a) any proceedings under this or any other Act of Parliament; or

  • (b) any other proceedings, unless in such proceedings it is alleged and established by the person making the allegation that the peace officer or officer in charge did not comply with the requirements of subsection (4).