Uttering Threats Charges Lawyer in Brampton, ON

Section 264.1(1) makes it an offence to knowingly utter, convey or cause any person to receive a threat to cause death or bodily harm to any person, to burn, destroy or damage property, or to kill, poison or injure an animal or bird belonging to someone.

Three features of the offence surprise people. The threat does not have to be made to the person threatened — conveying it to anyone is enough. The person threatened does not have to have been frightened. And nothing has to happen afterwards; the offence is complete when the words are uttered.

The words also do not need to be spoken. Text messages, social media posts, voicemails and messages passed through a third party are all captured by 'in any manner'.

Two things: that the words conveyed a threat of death or bodily harm when looked at objectively in the circumstances in which they were spoken, and that the accused intended the words to intimidate or to be taken seriously.

That second element does real work. Words shouted in obvious frustration, a joke between friends, or an empty vent to a third party may not meet it. The context, the relationship, the tone and what came before and after are all relevant, which is why the surrounding messages usually matter more than the single line the charge is built on.

Section 264.1 is a hybrid offence, so the Crown elects how to proceed.

There is no mandatory minimum. Sentences range widely and frequently involve a discharge, a suspended sentence or probation where the accused has no record, though a conviction for a threat against an intimate partner is treated as aggravating on sentence.

Where the allegation arises between intimate partners, the charge usually comes with release conditions restricting contact and residence. Those conditions bind immediately and breaching them creates a new charge, so they should be addressed rather than worked around. See our domestic violence page.

No. In Ontario the decision to proceed belongs to the Crown, not the complainant. Once police lay a charge, a complainant who no longer wishes to proceed cannot drop it.

A complainant's current position is something the Crown may take into account when assessing the case, and it can be communicated properly through the Victim/Witness Assistance Program. What a complainant should not do is take instructions from the accused about it, and what an accused must not do is contact a complainant in breach of a no-contact condition to ask.