Canadian Criminal Law/Offences/Kidnapping and Unlawful Confinement

Proof of Offence
Elements of proof include:

Kidnapping (279(1))
 * 1) identity of accused as culprit
 * 2) time and date of the incident
 * 3) jurisdiction of the incident
 * 4) the accused moved or took a person from one place to another
 * 5) the victim did not consent
 * 6) the accused had no lawful authority to do so
 * 7) the accused intended to
 * 8) confine or imprison the victim
 * 9) cause the person to be sent in or out of the country
 * 10) holding the person for ransom or service

Forcible Confinement (279(2))
 * 1) identity of accused as culprit
 * 2) time and date of the incident
 * 3) jurisdiction of the incident
 * 4) the accused restrained the victim
 * 5) the restraint was contrary to the victim's wishes
 * 6) the complainant did not consent to the confinement
 * 7) the accused had no lawful authority to confine the complainant
 * 8) the accused intended to confine the victim
 * 9) the accused used force or threat of force
 * 10) the sobriety of the parties

Sources:

Interpretation
Confinement is a general intent offence.

For the offence of kidnapping, the crown must prove that the accused took the victim from one place to another without consent. This is the key distinction between confinement and kidnapping. Confinement is the deprivation of a person's liberty to move, while kidnapping is the moving of a person. All kidnappings are confinements but not all confinements are kidnapping.

A person who voluntarily enters into a car, but is then denied the ability to leave will usually make out the offence.

Where consent was obtained by fraud, deceit, or trickery, then the consent is not valid.

There must be proven that there was at least a minimal deprivation of the victim's freedom.

The duration of the confinement does not need to be lengthy. A "significant" period of time where the victim is "coercively restrained or directed contrary to her wishes, so that she could not move about according to her own inclination and desire" will be sufficient.

A child confined by a lawful guardian can be considered lawful confinement.

An arrest by a peace officer or private citizen can be unlawful confinement. For example, where a officer takes a lawfully arrested man out to a remote area to abandon him in freezing weather makes out the offence.

A person who knowingly becomes involved with the confinement of a person known to them to have been kidnapped can be found to be a party to the initial offence of kidnapping.

Confinement refers to the "physical restraint, contrary to the wishes of the person restrained, ...thereby depriving the person of his or her liberty to move from one place to another".

There is no need for physical application of bindings.

Defences

 * Consent
 * Mistaken Belief of Consent
 * Self-Defence or Defence of Another
 * Defence of Property