Criminal Defence
Criminal Harassment Lawyers in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia
A criminal harassment lawyer defends what most people call a stalking charge. Under section 264 of the Criminal Code, the offence is conduct that could reasonably be expected to make another person fear for their safety. The conduct alleged is often ordinary behaviour that the complainant experienced as threatening, and the line between the two is where the defence works. This firm defends criminal harassment charges in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
Section 264 Names Four Kinds of Conduct
Section 264 of the Criminal Code prohibits repeatedly following someone, monitoring their location, movements or actions, repeatedly communicating with them directly or indirectly, besetting or watching their home or workplace, and threatening conduct directed at them or their family. The conduct must actually harass the complainant, the accused must know or be reckless to that, and the complainant must fear for their safety in a way a court finds reasonable. The offence is hybrid, with a maximum of ten years by indictment.
A Criminal Harassment Lawyer Wins or Loses on the Fear Element
Repeated texting after a breakup is not, by itself, criminal harassment. The Crown must prove the complainant feared for their safety, or the safety of someone they know, and that the fear was reasonable in all the circumstances. Persistent, unwanted, even obnoxious contact can fall short of that standard. A criminal harassment lawyer builds the timeline in full, because the messages the complainant sent back, the meetings they arranged, and the gaps in the story all bear on whether the fear was reasonable.
The Charge Usually Follows a Relationship Ending
Most files involve former partners, and both provinces treat those under intimate partner prosecution policies that continue the case regardless of the complainant’s later position. Others involve neighbours, co-workers or online disputes. Release conditions almost always prohibit contact and often ban the accused from streets or places the complainant frequents. The conditions can be varied by application, and complying with them to the letter, while the case is defended, is part of the strategy.
Penalties Reach Beyond the Sentence
By indictment the maximum is ten years, and on summary conviction it is two years less a day.1 A conviction can also carry probation, a weapons prohibition order, and a record that reads badly on any check for years. Where a court finds harassing conduct in an intimate partner context, it shapes family law proceedings too. Those consequences are a reason to defend the charge properly and not plead early to end the stress.
Charges Can Resolve Without a Conviction
Where the conduct is at the low end, or the evidence of reasonable fear is thin, the Crown may withdraw the charge on a peace bond, with enforceable no-contact terms replacing the prosecution. Discharges and provincial diversion streams can also apply. Where the allegation overstates ordinary behaviour, the matter is set down for trial in the Provincial Court of New Brunswick or the Provincial Court of Nova Scotia, or a higher court on election.
The Firm Defends Criminal Harassment Charges in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia
We Kept Texting Each Other. How Is That Harassment?
Two-way contact matters. The complainant’s own messages are evidence on whether the contact was unwanted and whether any fear was reasonable, and they are often the strongest material in the defence.
Is Criminal Harassment the Same As Uttering Threats?
No. Threats are a separate offence based on specific words (see uttering threats), and harassment is based on a course of conduct. The two are often charged together, and each has to be answered on its own elements.
What Should I Do First?
Stop all contact, keep everything, and get advice before any police interview. Contact the firm early. The full list of charges the firm defends is at criminal defence.