The Canadian Victims Bill of Rights creates a right for a victim to have the Court consider making a restitution order against the offender and, where that order is not paid, to have it entered as an enforceable civil judgment. Legislative amendments to the Criminal Code:
- require the court to consider a restitution order for all offences and allow victims to describe these losses at sentencing;
- specify that an offender's ability to pay is not determinative in ordering restitution;
- provide for a standard form to help victims claim their losses; and
- provide that payment schedules can also be included in a court order for restitution.
Under the Criminal Code, a judge can currently order an offender to pay the costs of any easy-to-calculate financial losses up to the date of sentencing, but not any future losses. A judge can order restitution for financial losses related to:
- damaged or lost property due to the crime;
- physical injury or psychological harm due to the crime;
- physical injury due to the arrest or attempted arrest of the offender;
- costs for temporary housing, food, childcare and transportation due to a spouse, common-law partner, child, or other person moving out of the offender's household because of harm or threatened harm from the offender;
- costs incurred by victims of identity theft to re-establish their identity and to correct their credit history and their credit rating; and
- costs that victims of non-consensual publication of an intimate image had to pay to have the image removed from the Internet or other digital networks.
The enforcement of restitution will be facilitated through several program measures, such as the development of tools for victims to give them more information about restitution and making funding available to provinces and territories to improve the enforcement of restitution orders.
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July 2015
Department of Justice Canada
