🍁 civid v1

Status

• Bill C-293 was introduced at first reading on October 20, 2026. It would amend the Criminal Code; it has no Parts.

New offence

• The bill would create a separate indictable offence of violent home invasion.
• It would apply to a person who, without lawful excuse, enters or is in a dwelling-house, knowing it is occupied or being reckless about whether it is occupied, and who, in committing the offence:
  • intimidates someone or uses violence or threats of violence against a person or property;
  • causes bodily harm or property damage;
  • confines, imprisons or forcibly seizes someone; or
  • carries, uses or threatens to use a weapon or imitation weapon.
• The proposed penalty is a minimum of five years’ imprisonment and a maximum of life imprisonment.

Other changes to existing law

• When sentencing someone for specified offences in relation to a dwelling-house, a court would have to treat the commission of a violent home invasion as an aggravating circumstance.
• The bill would add the new offence to the Criminal Code’s provisions on entrance and to its definition of “primary designated offence.”
• It would also add the offence to a list in section 515(6)(a) of the Criminal Code. The provided text does not set out the effect of that provision.

Who is affected

• The changes would affect people charged with or convicted of the proposed offence, as well as courts sentencing for the specified dwelling-house offences.

Costs and timing

• The provided text specifies no costs or commencement date.