r/canadaguns • u/rastamasta45 • Mar 17 '26

News / Politics / Activism 3 suspects sought in Vaughan break-in, homeowner who fired gun at them not being charged

https://www.cp24.com/local/york/2026/03/17/3-suspects-sought-in-vaughan-break-in-homeowner-who-fired-gun-at-them-not-being-charged/
414 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

106 comments sorted by

View all comments

28

u/LurkerGarry Mar 17 '26

Correct me if I’m wrong, but you do have the right to use a firearm to self defence in Canada if you feel like your life and the lives of others in the home are in danger. You’re just not allowed to chase and fire at someone retreating your home or property.

But if you do, you still need to prove in a court of law that you used your firearm lawfully correct? I can’t seem to find cases where people used their firearm to defend themselves and have gone to jail for doing so.

76

u/OniDelta al Mar 17 '26

Jail isn't the problem for people using legitimate self-defense. It's the cost of the legal process that follows. Self-defense cases should be free for the defendant. They didn't ask to be put into the situation and were forced to endure it. That shouldn't come at a significant life changing cost to finances. These cases are over 6 figures and people go bankrupt protecting themselves.

26

u/AdeptArt Mar 17 '26

I'm with you. Legal representation should not ruin your life financially even if you win.

3

u/Old-Selection-1012 Mar 18 '26

Americans get massive health care bills for medical.

Canadians get massive lawyer bills for self defence.

21

u/LurkerGarry Mar 17 '26

In Canada 60%~ of the legal costs are rewarded to the winner of the legal case. But you’re not wrong. A law abiding citizen should not have to pay thousands after defending themselves from an intruder.

6

u/Lumindan Mar 17 '26

But if you do, you still need to prove in a court of law that you used your firearm lawfully correct? I can’t seem to find cases where people used their firearm to defend themselves and have gone to jail for doing so.

The core issue isnt if you're guilty or not. It's that you're losing six figures in cash for a lawyer, months / years of your life get put on hold and you get to deal with all the stress and anxiety of being dragging into court to prove you were simply defending your family and property.

Go look up Ian Thompson come back to this comment. You'll understand why a lot of folks support C270 and take issue with the current system.

4

u/gnu_gai Mar 17 '26

You're not allowed to have a firearm on your person for the purpose of self defense unless you have a very specific judge-permitted ATC. If you happen to be cleaning your gun when someone breaks into your home, that's their bad luck, you don't have a duty to retreat from your own home and can use whatever is reasonably accessible to defend yourself

4

u/GabRB26DETT Mar 17 '26

Thing is, it's seems like it's up to a judge to decide AFTER what is and what is not a danger to your life. Easy to say looking back compared to when an attempt to your life is happening

3

u/FuzzyLampShade Mar 17 '26

Well it’s sort of in a grey area atm. We don’t yet have a castle law like in the states or parts of Europe. Usually depends if the police decide to charge you for using a firearms or any object in self defense. If you do get charged then you get financially fucked trying to argue in a court that you had no other options. It gets worse and more expensive if you end up killing an intruder and you’ll likely get charged and sent to jail for manslaughter.

TLDR; sort of yes, but actually no.

1

u/RYRK_ Mar 18 '26

It gets worse and more expensive if you end up killing an intruder and you’ll likely get charged and sent to jail for manslaughter.

Citation needed. If it was self-defense the Crown will drop charges due to likelihood of conviction.

1

u/Upbeat_Plane6490 Mar 18 '26

There’s case law that shooting at someone retreating can still be self defence, if you have reasonable grounds to believe they are retreating to a more suitable firing position.

But good luck on that one

0

u/waitwhatnothing Mar 18 '26

That’s all well and good. The main issue, aside from having to deal with legal process, is that we can’t legally possess anything for the purpose of self defense (gun or otherwise). It’s illegal to plan ahead basically and the firearms storage laws reflect that.

-1

u/meme__machine Mar 17 '26

The gun has to be stored legally, and if it’s in your basement and you were able to run down unlock it etc the state will argue you could have left out the back door, locked yourself in a safe room etc.

Now if the safe happens to be in the bedroom and was the closest thing you had access to and there was no other path to defending yourself ….

5

u/IGnuGnat Mar 18 '26

We have no duty to retreat in Canada AFAIK. I think that juries are specifically instructed not to consider the possibility that a defender could leave their house in Ontario; however, the judge may take that possibility into consideration depending upon circumstance.