Foreign Enlistment Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. F-28)

Marginal note:Short title

1 This Act may be cited as the Foreign Enlistment Act.

Marginal note:Definitions

2 In this Act,

armed forces

armed forces includes army, naval and air forces or services, combatant or non-combatant, but does not include surgical, medical, nursing and other services that are engaged solely in humanitarian work and under the control or supervision of the Canadian Red Cross or other recognized Canadian humanitarian society; (forces armées)

conveyance

conveyance includes ships, vessels, aircraft, trains, and motor and other vehicles; (moyen de transport)

equip

equip, in relation to a ship, includes the furnishing of anything that is used for the purpose of fitting or adapting the ship for the sea or for naval service, and all words relating to equipment shall be construed accordingly; (équiper)

foreign state

foreign state includes any foreign prince, colony, province or part of any province or people, or any person or persons exercising or assuming to exercise the powers of government in or over any foreign country, colony, province or part of any province or people; (État étranger)

illegally enlisted person

illegally enlisted person means a person who has accepted or agreed to accept, or is about to leave Canada with intent to accept, any commission or engagement, or who has been induced to go on board a conveyance under a misapprehension or false representation of the service in which the person is to be engaged with the intention or in order that the person may accept or agree to accept any commission or engagement contrary to this Act. (personne enrôlée illégalement)

within Canada

within Canada[Repealed, 1996, c. 31, s. 85]

Marginal note:Offence to enlist with a foreign state at war with a friendly state

3 Any person who, being a Canadian national, within or outside Canada, voluntarily accepts or agrees to accept any commission or engagement in the armed forces of any foreign state at war with any friendly foreign state or, whether a Canadian national or not, within Canada, induces any other person to accept or agree to accept any commission or engagement in any such armed forces is guilty of an offence.

Marginal note:Offence to leave or intend to leave Canada to enlist

4 Any person who, being a Canadian national, leaves or goes on board any conveyance with a view to leaving Canada with intent to accept any commission or engagement in the armed forces of any foreign state at war with any friendly foreign state or, whether a Canadian national or not, within Canada, induces any other person to leave or go on board any conveyance with a view to leaving Canada, with a like intent, is guilty of an offence.

Marginal note:Offence to induce a person to enlist and leave Canada by misrepresentations

5 Any person who induces any other person to leave Canada or to go on board any conveyance within Canada under a misrepresentation or false representation of the service in which such person is to be engaged, with the intent or in order that such person may accept or agree to accept any commission or engagement in the armed forces of any foreign state at war with any friendly foreign state, is guilty of an offence.

Marginal note:Owner of conveyance may be guilty of an offence

• 6 (1) A person who, having the control or direction of or being the owner of any conveyance, knowingly takes on board or engages to take on board or has on board such conveyance, within Canada, any illegally enlisted person, is guilty of an offence.

• Marginal note:Detaining conveyance

  (2) A conveyance referred to in subsection (1) shall be detained until the trial or conviction of the person or owner referred to in that subsection and until all fines or penalties imposed on the person or owner have been paid or security approved by the court having jurisdiction in the matter has been given for the payment thereof.

Marginal note:Offences

• 7 (1) Subject to subsection (2), any person who, within Canada,

  • (a) builds or agrees to build or causes to be built any ship with intent or knowledge or having reasonable grounds to believe that the ship will be employed in or by the armed forces of any foreign state at war with any friendly foreign state,

  • (b) issues or delivers any commission for any ship with intent or knowledge or having reasonable grounds to believe that the ship will be employed in or by the armed forces of any foreign state at war with any friendly foreign state,

  • (c) equips any ship with intent or knowledge or having reasonable grounds to believe that the ship will be employed in or by the armed forces of any foreign state at war with any friendly foreign state, or

  • (d) dispatches or causes or allows to be dispatched any ship with intent or knowledge or having reasonable grounds to believe that the ship will be employed in or by the armed forces of any foreign state at war with any friendly foreign state,

  is guilty of an offence.

• Marginal note:Exception

  (2) A person building, causing to be built or equipping a ship in any of the cases mentioned in subsection (1), in pursuance of a contract made before the commencement of any war referred to in that subsection, shall not be deemed to have committed an offence under this Act, if

  • (a) forthwith, on a proclamation of neutrality or any other proclamation notifying or bringing into operation the provisions of this Act, he gives notice to the Minister of Foreign Affairs that he is so building, causing to be built or equipping a ship and furnishes such particulars of the contract and of any matters relating to or done or to be done under the contract as may be required by the Minister of Foreign Affairs; and

  • (b) he gives such security and takes and permits to be taken such other measures, if any, as the Minister of Foreign Affairs may prescribe for insuring that the ship will not be dispatched, delivered or removed or otherwise dealt with without the permission in writing of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, until the termination of the war.

Marginal note:Ships employed by armed forces of foreign state

8 Where any ship is built by order of or on behalf of any foreign state when at war with any friendly foreign state, or is delivered to or to the order of the foreign state or to any person who to the knowledge of the person building is an agent of the foreign state, or is paid for by the foreign state or the agent, and is employed in or by the armed forces of the foreign state, the ship shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been built with a view to being so employed, and the burden lies on the builder of the ship to prove that he did not know that the ship was intended to be so employed in or by the armed forces of the foreign state.

Marginal note:Arming or equipping ships for foreign state at war

9 Any person who, within Canada, by any addition to or substitution in the armament or equipment, increases or augments, or procures to be increased or augmented, or is knowingly concerned in increasing or augmenting the warlike force of any ship that at the time it was within Canada was a ship in or of the armed forces of any foreign state at war with any friendly foreign state is guilty of an offence.

Marginal note:Outfitting expedition against friendly foreign state

10 Any person who, within Canada, prepares or fits out any army, naval or air expedition to proceed against the dominions of any friendly foreign state is guilty of an offence.

Marginal note:Recruiting

• 11 (1) Any person who, within Canada, recruits or otherwise induces any person or body of persons to enlist or to accept any commission or engagement in the armed forces of any foreign state or other armed forces operating in that state is guilty of an offence.

• Marginal note:Exception

  (2) Subsection (1) does not apply to the action of foreign consular or diplomatic officers or agents in enlisting persons who are nationals of the countries they represent and not Canadian nationals, in conformity with the regulations of the Governor in Council.

Marginal note:Prize of war

12 Where any ship, goods or merchandise captured as prize of war within Canada in violation of Canadian neutrality, or captured by any ship that may have been built, equipped, commissioned or dispatched, or the force of which may have been augmented, contrary to this Act, is brought within Canada by the captor, by any agent of the captor or by any person having come into possession thereof with a knowledge that the ship, goods or merchandise was prize of war so captured, it shall be lawful for the original owner of that prize or his agent, or for any person authorized by the government of the foreign state to which the owner belongs, or in which the captured ship may have been duly registered, to make application to the Federal Court for seizure and detention of the prize, and the Court shall, on due proof of the facts, order the prize to be restored.

Marginal note:Execution of Court order

• 13 (1) Every order referred to in section 12 shall be executed and carried into effect in the same manner and subject to the same right of appeal as in the case of any order made in the exercise of the ordinary jurisdiction of the Federal Court.

• Marginal note:Provisional orders

  (2) Until a final order has been made on the application referred to in section 12, the Federal Court has power to make all such provisional and other orders respecting the care or custody of the captured ship, goods or merchandise, and if the same is of a perishable nature, or incurring risk of deterioration for the sale thereof, and with respect to the deposit or investment of the proceeds of any such sale as may be made by the Court in the exercise of its ordinary jurisdiction.

Marginal note:Punishment

14 Any person who is guilty of an offence under this Act is liable

• (a) on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding twelve months, with or without hard labour, or to both fine and imprisonment; or

• (b) on conviction on indictment, to a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, with or without hard labour, or to both fine and imprisonment.

Marginal note:Offending ship forfeited

• 15 (1) Any ship in respect of which an offence under section 7 has been committed and the equipment thereof shall be forfeited to Her Majesty.

• Marginal note:Conveyance, arms, etc., forfeited

  (2) Any conveyance and the equipment thereof and all arms, ammunition and implements of war used in or forming part of an expedition in respect of which an offence under section 10 has been committed shall be forfeited to Her Majesty.

Marginal note:Locus of jurisdiction

16 For the purpose of giving jurisdiction in criminal proceedings under this Act, every offence shall be deemed to have been committed and every cause or complaint to have arisen either in the place in which it was committed or arose or in any place in which the offender or person complained against may be.

Marginal note:Criminal Code

17 Subject to this Act, criminal proceedings arising under this Act shall be subject to and governed by the Criminal Code.

Marginal note:Process for forfeiture

18 All proceedings for forfeiture of conveyances, goods or merchandise under this Act may be taken in the Federal Court, or in any other court of competent jurisdiction.

Marginal note:Regulations

19 The Governor in Council may, by order or regulation, provide for any or all of the following matters:

• (a) the application of this Act, with necessary modifications, to any case in which there is a state of armed conflict, civil or otherwise, either within a foreign country or between foreign countries;

• (b) the seizure, detention and disposition of conveyances, goods and merchandise;

• (c) the requirement of the consent of an authority or authorities to prosecutions, seizures, detentions and forfeiture proceedings;

• (d) the designation of officers or authorities that may execute any of the provisions of this Act; and

• (e) the issue, restriction, cancellation and impounding of passports, whether within Canada or elsewhere, to the extent to which the Governor in Council deems that action to be necessary or expedient for carrying out the general purposes of this Act.