opinion

“Your home is your castle.” That was Pierre Poilievre last Friday , calling for changes to the Criminal Code making it legal for people at home to use whatever force they like against an intruder. The Conservatives have a private member’s bill coming to that effect, to be called, inevitably, the Stand On Guard Act.

The bill is in hot pursuit of the recent charging of an Ontario man for allegedly stabbing a crossbow-wielding intruder half to death. As explained in a recent column , current Canadian law – passed by the Harper Conservatives – allows for the use of force in self-defence so far as it is “reasonable in the circumstances,” the burden of proof being on the Crown to prove that it was unreasonable.

Mr. Poilievre now finds that provision excessively “vague.” In its

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