Commitment not to disturb public order in cases of domestic violence was the subject of an abandonment of criminal prosecution (art. 810 C CR.)

This article reviews the perceptions and practices of judicial and psychosocial intervenors with regard to Sureties to Keep the Peace (section 810 of the Criminal Code of Canada). We describe how this protection order is regularly used in Montreal, not as a precaution when there are no live proceedings, but as a measure following a decision to free the accused from the charges laid against him or to acquit. The data hereby presented comes from a study conducted on the discontinuance of legal criminal actions in incidents of spousal abuse, which was conducted in Montreal in 2002. We interviewed twenty-two professionals involved in the criminal judicial treatment of these cases, especially six judges, seven prosecutors, four defence lawyers, and five interveners from the Cote cour services. We concluded from the interviews that section 810 of the Canadian criminal code is often used in judicial incidents of spousal abuse, and that in general, these intervenors like to have access to this order, which allows them to keep monitoring the accused for a period of up to twelve months. That said, this measure is not considered as a universal cure, coming as it does with disadvantages, especially for the accused and the victims.