Many of you may be familiar with the infamous “Call An Ambulance But Not For Me”
meme, but for those that are not, here is a quick summary of this iconic video. Picture an old man minding his business and walking to his car. Suddenly, a young adult approaches him, brandishes a knife and says “hey old man, gimme everything.” Startled by the encounter, the old man clutches his left side as if he is experiencing a heart attack and yells, “call an ambulance, call an ambulance!” But then, in a quick turn of events the old man unflinchingly pulls out his gun and says, “but not for me.” Now if this encounter was real and on Canadian soil, the old man may be assessed under section 34 of the Canadian Criminal Code: 34 (1) A person is not guilty of an offence if
(2) In determining whether the act committed is reasonable in the circumstances, the court shall consider the relevant circumstances of the person, the other parties and the act, including, but not limited to, the following factors:
Now before we “jump the gun” (get it?), we need to make sure that three important elements are met:
For the old man to rely on self-defence, he must raise an “air of reality” under each of those three elements mentioned above: s.34(1)(a)-(c). The crown would have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that self-defense does not apply by addressing at least one of those three elements. In R v Khill, 2021 SCC 37 [Khill], the SCC case involving self-defence, the accused, a former military soldier, woke up in the early morning and investigated a noise he heard outside. Seeing that it was someone near his vehicle, he yelled, “hey hands up!” The man made a motion to turn towards the accused’s voice and was then shot twice: Khill at para 7. The SCC case goes through whether the accused’s actions were reasonable provided the circumstances. From this, we learn that the question is NOT therefore what the accused thought was reasonable based on their characteristics and experiences, but rather what a reasonable person with the relevant characteristics and experiences would perceive: Khill at para 57. In the old man’s case, what would the reasonable person do? It’s possible that he had a right to self-defence but it’s also possible that pulling out a gun may be a little excessive. The only thing certain in his case was that he definitely didn’t need an ambulance for himself.
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Rick Sanchez is an interdimensional traveller, an avid alcoholic, and grandfather to Morty. On his space escapades, he’s often seen getting in trouble with the law and other aliens. Putting aside the obvious jurisdictional issues - space doesn’t count, sorry folks - would Rick be able to use the defence of involuntary intoxication if he were to get caught?
Let’s imagine that Rick & Morty are seen using the pickle ray on their neighbours. A pickle ray is quite self-explanatory: a ray that turns others into pickles. They get arrested. Morty decides to get his own legal counsel and Rick asks us whether he can use this defence. We say we’ll look into it and do some research. Our findings lead us to the following information: Involuntary intoxication is an available defence under section 33.1 of the Criminal Code, RSC,1985, c 46. However, if the three conditions below are met then it is not a defence that the accused lacked the general intent or voluntariness required to commit that offence:
The following factors listed may also cause a defence of involuntary intoxication to fail, if the court finds:
We must now look at the facts. Rick is drunk on all of his adventures satisfying the first condition of self-inducement and second condition for intoxication. Unfortunately, by turning his neighbours into pickles he also “departs” from the standard of reasonable care thereby satisfying the third condition as well (fortunately for us, there’s not a lot of people out there using pickle rays). Rick may also face some hurdles when it comes to intoxication being caused “by some degree of fault” on his part and the fact that he “ought reasonably to have known” that vodka is an intoxicant. Rick was also with a minor when committing the act which doesn’t make his case look any better. Safe to say that Rick would most likely not be able to use involuntary intoxication as a defence in Canadian courts. However, given that he’s a genius and the proud owner of a portal gun, a gadget that allows the user to travel between different universes/dimensions, I wouldn’t worry too much about him. “It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.” ~ Bilbo Baggins
The world is a dangerous place but not like the ones you see in the movies; last I checked, there are no Nazgul or dragons outside my door. However, we can learn a lot from the hobbits and their resilience to accomplish a meaningful purpose. Much like Tolkien’s realm, the criminal law landscape has a variety of environments such as the types of charges, clients, and even self-growth that one will inevitably encounter. For myself, Frodo’s character is very familiar in that he was initially wracked with fear and doubt about the obstacles he was going to face. Yet despite his background, he proves himself to be one of the greatest heroes in the trilogy. Though I will never encounter the decision to throw an evil ring into a fiery pit, I will be facing my own obstacles in the form of a steep learning curve. When I first entered law school, I was swept by the idea of wanting to do civil law and entertaining dreams of entering into insurance law, a familiar subject that was a comfortable fallback. Rather, like Frodo I discovered that by staying in the Shire, or in my case an area of comfortability, I would not satisfy the journey calling me to do criminal law. In my last year as a law student, I chose to pursue my articles with Guillaume, a well-distinguished, kind, and knowledgeable lawyer. I hope that I am able to learn from this journey just as Frodo learned from Gandalf and the fellowship around him. As I start this journey, I know that there will be ups and downs in my learning but I will not let that stop me from doing my best as an articling student. And so, as I begin this journey I start hopeful and ready to encounter anything that comes my way outside of the Shire. |