Corporal punishment within the family (school corporal punishment is illegal here in Quebec):
Date: January 2004
Canada's Supreme Court limits but fails to remove parents' "reasonable force" defence
By six to three, Canada's Supreme Court judges have strictly limited the legality of parental corporal punishment and ruled out school corporal punishment. But they rejected an application by the Canadian Foundation for Youth, Children and the Law that section 43 of Canada's criminal code should be struck down as unconstitutional. The judgment was issued on January 30 2004.
The majority judgment ruled that section 43 only justifies "minor corrective force of a transitory and trifling nature." It ruled out "on the basis of current expert consensus", corporal punishment of children under two or over 12; degrading, inhuman or harmful conduct; discipline using objects such as rulers or belts, and blows or slaps to the head. And the judgment states that teachers cannot use corporal punishment, although they may use reasonable force to remove a child from a classroom or secure compliance with instructions:
"Substantial societal consensus, supported by expert evidence and Canada's treaty obligations, indicates that corporal punishment by teachers is unreasonable."
Section 43 of the Code, under the heading "Protection of Persons in Authority" provides that:
"Every schoolteacher, parent or person standing in the place of a parent is justified in using force by way of correction toward a pupil or child, as the case may be, who is under his care, if the force does not exceed what is reasonable under the circumstances."
School corporal punishment has been prohibited in Canada in state schools only in British Columbia, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Yukon, Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Northwest Territories and Nunavut. The judgment implies that corporal punishment is now unlawful in all private and public schools throughout Canada."