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A. STATUTORY PROVISIONS
Section 212 of the Criminal Code creates several offenses,
including "procuring" (ss. 212(1)(a), (d), (e) and (g)), "exercising control"
(s. 212(1)(h)) and "obtaining the sexual services of a minor" (s. 212(4)).

Former limitation period

A narrow issue with respect to procuring was addressed in Sheppard (1990), 57 C.C.C. (3d) 213 (Nfld.S.C.). The accused was charged that, between 1981 and 1986, he procured certain women to have illicit intercourse with certain men. The charge was under former 5. 195(1)(a). At the time of the alleged offense, former S. 195(4) provided:

No proceedings for an offenses under this section shall be commenced more then one year after the time when the offense is alleged to have been committed.

In 1988 this former limitation period was repealed. When the charge was laid, there was no limitation period. The accused applied to have the charge stayed on the ground that when the offence was alleged to have been committed (before the repeal) he would have been protected from prosecution. The court disagreed (at 216):

Section 195(4) of the Code placed a limitation on the commencement of proceedings under S. 195. It did not affect the substance of any charge under the section and its repeal did not affect the offence. It was procedural only. Its repeal does not preclude the laying of the charges contained in sections 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 of the indictment. The accused's application is denied.

But Ford (1993), 84 C.C.C. (3d) 544 (Ont.C.A.) disagreed with this view. Here the accused was charged with offences alleged to have occurred in 1985 and the charge was laid in 1989. The Crown argued that the repeal of a limitation period is a procedural amendment, applying retrospectively. The Court of Appeal disagreed, holding that once the limitation period expired the charge could not be laid, notwithstanding the repeal of 5. former 195(4).

 

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