The Conservatives are pushing for changes to the Criminal Code they say would offer new protections to people who use force to defend themselves during a home invasion — but the government says Canadians already have the right to self-defence.
Ontario MP Sandra Cobena introduced a private member’s bill on Thursday that would change Section 34 of the Criminal Code so that use of force against an illegal intruder is presumed to be justified.
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“When they defend themselves from criminals who terrorize our neighbourhoods, Canadians are forced through long and costly trials just to defend themselves,” she said.
The proposal is something party leader Pierre Poilievre called for the Liberals to introduce back in the summer.
A Conservative party press release from August said the current Canadian law is “vague and subjective.” It cited a case from 2019, when an Ontario man was arrested after shooting a person who had invaded his home during a struggle and spent six months in jail before the charges were dropped.
Justice Minister Sean Fraser said he hadn’t seen the text of Cobena’s bill on Thursday afternoon and he wasn’t able to say whether the government would support it.
“In Canada, you have the right to use reasonable force to defend yourself and others who are in your home should you be facing a circumstance where someone may intrude and threaten violence,” he said at a news conference in Ottawa on Thursday.
“It’s essential that we maintain that rule.”
Noah Weisbord, an associate professor of law at McGill University who has written about self-defence laws in Canada and the U.S., said the current Canadian law is “extremely permissive.”
Former prime minister Stephen Harper’s government made changes in 2013 to simplify the law. Those changes mean “Canadian law allows you to use force and get off the hook and claim defensive force more easily than in the U.S.,” Weisbord said.
Section 34 of the Criminal Code sets nine factors the court considers when determining whether self-defence was reasonable in the circumstances.
At Thursday’s news conference, Cobena said her bill would further clarify the law so it is presumed that any force used against someone committing a home invasion is reasonable, unless there’s evidence that it was not.
“Right now, the onus is on the homeowner and that’s why you see costly legal battles where they have to defend themselves,” she said.
Weisbord said that, practically speaking, it’s not clear what this proposed change would do. The burden is already on the Crown to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt in court, and that includes disproving the claim that self-defence was reasonable, he said.
“It seems to me like the Conservatives don’t understand how self-defence law in Canada works,” he said.
Conservative MPs said Thursday that the rate of violent crime has gone up in Canada over the last decade and police have been asking for tougher laws to deter home invasions.
An overwhelming majority of grassroots supporters at the Conservative convention in January voted in favour of a policy to introduce a so-called “castle law” doctrine that would allow people to take whatever action they deem necessary, including lethal force, to protect against a home invasion.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 12, 2026.
— With files from Alessia Passafiume and Catherine Morrison.
