GUILTY or NOT? / Glossary
Canadian legal glossary
Necessity
An excuse for breaking the law under urgent peril where there was no reasonable legal alternative and the harm inflicted was proportionate to the harm avoided.
No case brief in the library uses this exact wording yet. Browse every case.
Related category: Defences & Mental State
Self-defence, duress, necessity, consent, automatism and not criminally responsible — the cases where the act is admitted and the fight is over whether the law excuses it. The newest Defences & Mental State cases in the library:
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The Videotaped Complaint
2006
R v Khelawon — Aggravated assault (s. 268) · Supreme Court of Canada (Ontario)
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The Broken Guitar
2019
R v Ruddick — Aggravated assault (s. 268(1) Criminal Code) · Supreme Court of Nova Scotia
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The Driver at Gunpoint
1977
Paquette v The Queen — Non-capital murder, as a party under s. 21(2) (then s. 218; now s. 235) · Supreme Court of Canada (Ontario)
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The Mushrooms and the Stranger's House
2022
R v Brown — Break and enter and committing aggravated assault (ss. 348(1)(b), 268) · Supreme Court of Canada (Alberta)
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The Carving Knife
2025
R v McCrae — Possession of a weapon for a purpose dangerous to the public peace (s. 88(1)) · Supreme Court of British Columbia
All 14 Defences & Mental State cases →
See also: Defences
← mens rea · non-restricted firearm → · All 51 terms
A new real Canadian case every day. Read the brief, weigh the Crown against the defence, commit to a verdict, then see what the court decided — and why.