After eight years of Trudeau government, Canada has become a dramatically more dangerous place. After declining for decades, crime is again on the rise and Canadians don’t feel safe anymore walking down the street at night in many cities, or even in their own homes.

One obvious way to deter crime is to make it clear to criminals that there are laws and enforcement means in place that make it likely that they will be caught and severely punished. Another is the fear that their victims are going to defend themselves.

Any justice system grounded in morality and reason allows self-defence. In Canada, this right is, however, inconsistently applied due to the law’s complexity and imprecision.

There have been many cases over the past years when honest citizens who defended themselves against violent assailants were themselves charged and went on trial because they used force that was not deemed “reasonable in the circumstances” and “proportionate to the perceived threat.”

Moreover, the Criminal Code specifically makes it illegal to carry and use even non-lethal devices such as pepper spray as modes of defence against potential attackers. This makes women in particular even more defenceless and prone to fall victim to aggression and sexual violence.