everything.study
POLI 2311

Criminal Law

0.5 credits · Undergraduate

Fall 2026

Readings

  • Required: Criminal Law in Canada, 8th Edition, David MacAlister and Simon N. Verdun-Jones (
  • Required: Criminal Law in Canada, Chapter 2
  • Required: Criminal Law in Canada, Chapter 4
  • Required: Criminal Law in Canada, Chapter 5
  • Required: October 13 NO CLASS-Study Week
  • Required: Criminal Law in Canada, Chapter 8
  • Required: Criminal Law in Canada, Chapter 9
  • Required: Criminal Law in Canada, Chapter 10
  • Required: Criminal Law in Canada, Chapter 11
  • Required: November 24 Guest speakers/examination review
  • Required: December 8 Movie Night (To Be Announced)
Fall 2025

Readings

  • Required: Criminal Law in Canada, 8th Edition, David MacAlister and Simon N. Verdun-Jones
  • Required: Criminal Law in Canada, Chapter |
  • Required: Criminal Law in Canada, Chapter 2
  • Required: Criminal Law in Canada, Chapter 4
  • Required: Criminal Law in Canada, Chapter 5
  • Required: September 30 NO CLASS-National Truth and Reconciliation Day
  • Required: October 14 NO CLASS-Study Week
  • Required: Criminal Law in Canada, Chapter 8
  • Required: Criminal Law in Canada, Chapter 9
  • Required: Criminal Law in Canada, Chapter 10
  • Required: Criminal Law in Canada, Chapter 11
Fall 2025

Topics

  • Canadian court cases be accessed at
  • Introductions to the Course and to Criminal Law in Canada
  • law, crime and punishment under law
  • the relationship between morality and the law
  • Canadian constitution and judicial system
  • common law
  • criminal law under Canada's
  • Constitution: government powers and Charter limits
  • Constitution Act, 1867 s. 91, s. 92, s
  • Constitution Act, 1982 s
  • Judicial review by Supreme Court under the Charter & rules of interpretation
  • R. v. Oakes, [1986]
  • Excerpts from R. v. Edwards Books & Art [1986]
  • Perka v. The Queen
  • Criminal jurisdiction of the Federal government
  • Reference Re Validity of Section 5(a) of the Dairy Industry Act [Margarine Reference], [1950]
  • Reference re Young Offenders Act (P.E.I.), [1991]
  • R. v. Malmo‑Levine
  • R. v. Caine, [2003]
  • R. v. Lloyd, 2016 SCC 13, [2016]
  • Introduction to the federal Criminal Code
  • Categories of Offense

Readings

  • Sept 20: Judicial review by Supreme Court under the Charter & rules of interpretation R. v. Oakes, [1986]; Excerpts from R. v. Edwards Books & Art [1986]; Perka v. The Queen, [1984].
  • Nov 7: Criminal Defenses: Automatism; Partial Criminal Defenses: Provocation & Intoxication R v. Stone, 1999; R. v. Fontaine., 2004; R v. Brown (2022); R v. Thibert, 1996; R v. Daviault
  • Nov 28: Procedural Rights for Aboriginal Offenders; Review R. v. Gladue, 1999; R. v. Ipeelee (2012)
  • https://www.canlii.org/?origLang=en ↗
    Source-linked resource
Fall 2018

Topics

  • larger political context that understands it as a site of gendered, racialized, and class struggle. It
  • maintains that for students of law to be able to engage criminal justice legal discourse in a critical
  • criminality. In addition to introducing students to procedural and substantive aspects of Canadian
  • Charter of Rights and Freedoms, popular trials and legal precedents, processes of criminalization
  • violence and (un)freedom
  • To this end, the objective of this course is two-fold, to introduce to students to the general
  • provide students with a framework through which they might more better understand criminal
  • law’s networks of power and the politics of criminalization

Readings

  • Verdun-Jones, S. N. (2016). Criminal Law in Canada: Cases, Questions, and the Code. Nelson Publishing. (required text)
2013 · Criminal Law — essay options

Topics

  • Historical assisted-suicide law
  • Mandatory minimum sentences and deterrence
  • Cultural considerations in sentencing
  • The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
  • Youth justice
Fall 2010

Readings

  • Required: Criminal Law in Canada 5th Edition, Simon N. Verdun-Jones (
Sources