QUICK TAKEAWAY
Participating in a Criminal Organization: The Criminal Code defines a criminal organization as any structured group that has at least three members engaged in ongoing criminal activity to make money. It is illegal to belong to such an organization. It is also a crime to carry out work for the group, to order others to engage in activity for its benefit, or to recruit or invite others to join the organization. Depending on the charge, penalties range from six months in jail to life imprisonment.
Table of Contents:
What is Belonging to a Criminal Organization?
Section 467.11 of the Criminal Code makes it a crime to participate in the activities of a criminal organization. The Code defines a criminal organization as a group that is composed of three or more people in or outside Canada and has as one of its main purposes the commission of serious criminal offences. It does not include a group that forms randomly for a single offence. The organization must have some internal structure. Most international organized crimeA organization whose members work together on criminal activities groups are active within Canada, including outlaw motorcycle gangs and a variety of domestic groups. Charges that relate to criminal organizations include:
Recruitment of Members by a Criminal Organization
Section 467.111 of the Code makes it a crime to recruit, solicit, encourage, coerce or invite a person to join the criminal organization.
Commission of Offence for a Criminal Organization
Section 467.12 (1) of the Code makes it a crime to commit an offence at the direction or benefit of a criminal organization.
Instructing Commission of Offence for a Criminal Organization
Section 476.13 of the Code makes it a crime for someone who belongs to a criminal organization to instruct others to commit a criminal offence.
Most Organized Crime Charges are Indictable Offences
Canadian courts deal with offences in two ways. Summary offences are for less serious crimes while indictable offences include murder, sexual assault and aggravated assault. The charge of being involved in a criminal organization can be dealt with as either a summary offenceLess-serious criminal offences or an indictable offenceIndictable offences are more-serious criminal offences, but other related charges, such as ordering that a criminal act be committed, are indictable offences.
What is Needed to Convict
In determining whether you have participated in or contributed to any activity of a criminal organization, the court will consider factors such as if you:
- used a name, word, symbol or other representation that identifies, or is associated with, the criminal organization;
- frequently associated with any of the persons who constitute the criminal organization;
- received any benefit from the criminal organization; or
- repeatedly engaged in activities at the instruction of any of the persons who constitute the criminal organization.
It is not necessary for the Crown prosecutorLawyers who prosecutes charges on behalf of the Crown to prove that the criminal organization actually committed an indictable offence or that you enhanced the ability of the criminal organization to commit an indictable offence. It also does not matter if you knew the identity of all of the people in the criminal organization.
Penalties for Criminal Organization Involvement
Those found guilty of participating in a criminal organization or enhancing its ability to operate face a maximum penalty of five years in prison if the charge is treated as an indictable offence, with less severe punishment if the charge is prosecuted as a summary conviction.
The charge of recruiting, soliciting, encouraging or inviting a person to join a criminal organization is always treated as an indictable offence. If the recruited person is under 18 years of age, the maximum punishment is five years in prison, with a minimum punishment of six months in jail. If the person recruited was above 18, the maximum sentence is the same but there is no minimum sentence.
The charge of committing an indictable offence at the direction or benefit of a criminal organization is always an indictable offence with a maximum punishment of 14 years in prison.
The charge of instructing others to commit a criminal act on behalf of a criminal organization is always an indictable offence, with life imprisonment the maximum penalty.
Glossary of Legal Terms
Crown prosecutor
Lawyers who act for the federal, provincial and territorial governments and prosecute people accused of crimes on behalf of the Crown.
Indictable offence
Indictable offences are the most serious offences under the Criminal Code and they come with more serious punishments, up to a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Organized crime
The Criminal Code defines organized crime as a group of three or more people whose purpose is the commission of one or more serious offences that would “likely result in the direct or indirect receipt of a material benefit, including a financial benefit, by the group.” That is often through crimes such as gambling, prostitution or drug trafficking.
Summary offence
Summary offences are less-serious criminal offences such as disturbing the peace or unlawful assembly
