Bill C-75

Bill C-75 – An Act to Amend the Criminal Code, the Youth Criminal Justice Act and Other Acts and to make consequential amendments to other Acts (S.C. 2019, c.25)

An Act to amend the Criminal Code, the Youth Criminal Justice Act and other Acts and to make consequential amendments to other Acts (S.C. 2019, c. 25) makes significant amendments to several Canadian federal statutes, including the Criminal Code and Youth Criminal Justice Act. The legislation was brought in by Bill C-75, which received Royal Assent on June 21, 2019.

The various sections of this act will be brought into force in stages - some on the 30th day after royal assent, some on the 90th day, and some on the 180th day. The coming into force information for the different sections can be found at the end of the act. 

As of August 20, 2019 the Government of Canada’s Justice Laws Website version of the Criminal Code (R.S.C. 1985, c. C-46) does not include the new amendments. Quickscribe Online (which is available through the Courthouse Libraries BC’s public access computers) contains a version of the Criminal Code that is effective July 21st, 2019, as well as an early consolidation of the code that includes all the amendments set out by Bill C-75.

A legislative background to Bill C-75, which details the various amendments, can be found on the Department of Justice website: https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/csj-sjc/jsp-sjp/c75/toc-tdm.html

The Parliament of Canada’s website contains a history of Bill C-75’s progress through the House of Commons and Senate, along with links to the Hansard debates: https://www.parl.ca/LEGISInfo/BillDetails.aspx?billId=9745407&Language=E

According to the Thomson Reuters website, the 2020 edition of Martin’s Annual Criminal Code will include a legislative supplement of the amendments introduced by Bill C-75 and other acts that received royal assent on June 21, 2019. The same website states that the 2020 edition of The Annotated Tremeear’s Criminal Code will include all of the amendments that received royal assent on June 21, 2019. The 2020 editions of Martin’s and Tremeear’s are scheduled to be published in August and September 2019, respectively.