Criminal Code

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.