Intimidation of Parliament

Intimidation of Parliament is an obscure criminal law in Canada that makes it a crime to violently intimidate the Parliament of Canada and the provincial legislatures. The maximum sentence is fourteen years. It reads:


 * 51. Every one who does an act of violence in order to intimidate Parliament or the legislature of a province is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding fourteen years.


 * R.S., c. C-34, s. 51.

The law is one of only a handful of criminal offences, such as treason and piracy, that are automatically heard by the Federal Court of Canada rather than the Provincial courts. It is a very rare crime. One of the only individuals to be charged with the crime in recent decades was Charles Yacoub who hijacked a Greyhound bus and had it driven onto Parliament Hill in 1989. In his trial Yacoub was later found not guilty of the particular charge.