Administration of Justice Offences

The “Administration of justice offences” category includes but is not limited to failure to appear in court, breach of a probation order, being unlawfully at large, failure to comply with an order, and “other administration of justice offences” such as corruption and disobedience, misleading justice, and perjury.

The great majority of offences against the administration of justice by young offenders are failure to appear for court and breach of probation (usually prosecuted as the offence under the YOA of "failure to comply with a disposition"), but this category also includes violations of bail conditions (both JIR and OIC undertakings), escaping from a facility ("escape custody"), or leaving a facility without permission ("unlawfully at large", or, colloquially, "going AWOL"), and rare instances of other offences. (www.statcan.gc.ca)

Offences against the administration of justice differ from other offences in that

(i) they rarely involve harm to a victim, other than to the justice system itself;

(ii) they do not involve behaviour that is popularly considered "criminal": rather they involve disobeying orders of the court or other system actors; which can be just as serious as a strictly criminal offence.

(iii) they are "secondary" offences, i.e. they can be committed only after another offence has been committed, or alleged; for this reason, they may contribute to a "revolving door" syndrome.

Examples of Secondary Offences

• Breach of Public Trust (122)
• Disobeying a Court Order (127)
• Obstruction of a Peace Officer (129)
• Disarming a Peace Officer (270.1)
• Breach of Undertaking, Recognizance, or Probation (145, 733)
• Failure to Attend Court or Appear (145)
• Escape from Lawful Custody (145(1))
• Perjury (131)
• Fabricating Evidence (137)
• Giving a False Sworn Statement (134)
• Obstructing Justice (139)
• Public Mischief (140)
• Prison Breach (144)
• Intimidation of a Justice System Participant (423.1)
• Contempt of Court (708)