JFCY intervened in 2 cases heard together in the Supreme Court of Canada in the spring of 2005 about the interpretation of the term “violent offence” under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. The youth court can only consider custodial sentences for certain offences including a violent offence. The young people had been found guilty of arson and dangerous driving in incidents in which no persons were injured.
The Court decided that the term violent offence meant that the crime had to be one in which bodily harm was actually caused or threatened. This was one of the first cases in which the Court was asked to interpret the relatively new Youth Criminal Justice Act.
