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Young people charged in Ontario are dealt with under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, which is built around rehabilitation and reintegration. This page explains how that system works and what parents can do.
Book My Consultation →The Youth Criminal Justice Act applies to young persons who were at least 12 but under 18 at the time of the offence, and it requires that extrajudicial measures be considered before any charge proceeds through the courts.
Tell your child not to give any statement, and call a lawyer before any interview. Section 146 of the Youth Criminal Justice Act gives young persons special protections that are strongest before a statement exists, including the right to consult counsel and a parent. Free duty counsel is available at any hour. Then attend court with your child on the first date.
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The Youth Criminal Justice Act applies to a person who was at least twelve years old and under eighteen at the time of the alleged offence. A child under twelve cannot be charged with a criminal offence in Canada at all. The Act applies the substantive criminal law found in the Criminal Code and other statutes, but it replaces almost everything about how those charges are processed, tried, sentenced and recorded.
The principles in section 3 of the Act are not decoration. The youth criminal justice system is to be separate from the adult system, is to emphasise rehabilitation and reintegration, fair and proportionate accountability consistent with the reduced maturity of young persons, and enhanced procedural protection. Those principles are argued in real courtrooms and they change outcomes.
Matters are heard in youth justice court, which in Ontario is a sitting of the Ontario Court of Justice. Proceedings are open to the public, but section 110 prohibits publication of any information that would identify a young person dealt with under the Act, and section 111 does the same for a young victim or witness.
Sections 4 to 12 of the Act require that extrajudicial measures be considered first. Section 4 states that they are presumed to be adequate to hold a young person accountable where the offence is non-violent and the young person has not previously been found guilty of an offence. A police officer must, before starting proceedings, consider taking no further action, giving a warning, administering a formal caution, or referring the young person to a community programme.
Where a charge proceeds, extrajudicial sanctions under section 10 remain available. These are structured programmes, delivered in the community, that may involve counselling, community service, an apology, restitution or a specific programme addressing the behaviour. The young person must accept responsibility, must be advised of the right to counsel before consenting, and must consent freely. On completion, the charge is dismissed. A record of the sanction exists but the access period is short.
| Response | What it involves | Court involvement | Record consequence |
|---|---|---|---|
| No further action or warning | Officer decides no proceeding is needed | None | Police occurrence record only |
| Police caution | Formal letter or interview with the young person and parents | None | Very limited |
| Crown caution | Formal caution issued by the Crown instead of proceeding | Charge not pursued | Very limited |
| Extrajudicial sanction, section 10 | Community programme, service, apology or restitution | Charge dismissed on completion | Short access period under Part 6 |
| Youth justice court proceeding | Trial or plea, then a youth sentence under section 42 | Full proceeding | Access period runs from the sentence, under section 119 |
Section 146 of the Act gives young persons protections that adults do not have when it comes to statements. Before a statement made to a person in authority can be admitted, the young person must have been clearly told, in language appropriate to their age and understanding, that they are under no obligation to make a statement, that anything said can be used as evidence, that they have the right to consult counsel and a parent or another appropriate adult, and that any statement must be made in the presence of that person unless they choose otherwise. The young person must be given a reasonable opportunity to consult, and any waiver must be recorded or in writing.
Those requirements are strictly applied. A statement taken without them is frequently inadmissible, and that alone can decide a case. Section 25 guarantees the right to counsel at every stage and requires that a young person be advised of it, including the right to legal aid. Section 26 requires notice to a parent where a young person is arrested and detained or charged.
Your child does not have to answer questions or give a statement, and neither do you. Ask that questioning stop until a lawyer has been consulted; that request is a right, not obstruction. If you are present during questioning, you are not there to persuade your child to talk. Duty counsel is available free of charge at any hour, and speaking to a lawyer first is the single most useful thing that can happen in the first few hours.
Section 42 sets out the sentences a youth justice court may impose: a reprimand, an absolute or conditional discharge, a fine up to $1,000, restitution, a community service order, probation up to two years, an intensive support and supervision order, attendance at a specified programme, a deferred custody and supervision order, and custody and supervision orders in defined proportions.
Section 39 restricts custody sharply. A youth justice court shall not commit a young person to custody unless the young person has committed a violent offence, has failed to comply with previous non-custodial sentences, has committed an indictable offence for which an adult would face more than two years and has a history of findings of guilt, or in exceptional cases where the circumstances are such that a non-custodial sentence would be inconsistent with the purpose and principles of sentencing. The court must consider all reasonable alternatives to custody, and a pre-sentence report is generally required before custody is imposed.
Adult sentences are possible only in narrow circumstances. The Crown must give notice and apply, the young person must have been at least fourteen at the time of a serious offence, and the court must be satisfied that a youth sentence of the applicable length would not be of sufficient length to hold the young person accountable. There is no automatic transfer to adult court, and the presumption favours a youth sentence.
Section 29 of the Youth Criminal Justice Act restricts pre-trial detention of young persons. A youth justice court is not to detain a young person as a substitute for appropriate child protection, mental health or other social measures. Detention is permitted only where the young person is charged with a serious offence or has a history that indicates a pattern of outstanding charges or findings of guilt, where there are reasonable grounds to believe that detention is necessary on the grounds set out in the Criminal Code, and where no condition or combination of conditions would reasonably reduce the concern.
Section 31 provides for placement in the care of a responsible person instead of detention. A parent, relative or other adult may undertake in writing to take care of the young person and to ensure their attendance in court and compliance with conditions, and the young person must consent. This is a real and frequently underused alternative, and it turns on someone being willing to come to court and give that undertaking. If your child is being held, the most useful thing you can do is attend and be prepared to take on that role.
Where a young person is detained, sections 30 and 84 require that they be held separately from adults, subject to narrow exceptions. Youth custody in Ontario is administered under provincial legislation and is designed around education and programming rather than adult correctional models.
A criminal charge is often not the only proceeding a young person faces. Ontario's Education Act allows a principal to suspend a pupil, and a board to expel, for conduct that may include activity giving rise to a charge, and those processes run on their own timelines with their own appeal rights. The school process is not bound by the criminal outcome, and a statement made in a school investigation can find its way into the criminal file. Coordinating the two is important, and a young person should have advice before participating in either.
Where the underlying issue is mental health, a learning disability, substance use, or the influence of an older group, the court is genuinely receptive to a plan that addresses it. Youth Crowns and youth court judges see the same patterns repeatedly and respond well to concrete steps: an assessment obtained, counselling started, a mentoring or recreation programme joined, a change in supervision at home. The Act's emphasis on rehabilitation and reintegration is not rhetoric; it is the framework the court is required to apply.
Parents ask what to tell a young person about the process. The honest answer is usually the most reassuring one: the system is designed to recognise that young people make serious mistakes without those mistakes defining them, most youth matters do not end in custody, the record has a limited access period, and there is a lawyer whose job is to speak for them. What is not helpful is pressing a young person to explain themselves to police in the belief that cooperation will make it go away. It will not, and section 146 exists precisely because young people are vulnerable to that pressure.
Youth records are not the same as adult criminal records. Part 6 of the Act creates a closed system: records may be accessed only by specified persons, for specified purposes, and only during an access period fixed by section 119. Those periods vary with the outcome and the seriousness of the offence, running from a short period after an extrajudicial sanction to several years after a finding of guilt for an indictable offence. Once the access period expires, the record is generally to be treated as if the finding of guilt had never been made, subject to the exceptions in the Act.
Two cautions matter. First, if a young person is found guilty of a further offence as an adult while a youth access period is still running, the youth record can become part of the adult record. Second, youth records can still be relevant to entering the United States, to certain licensing processes and to immigration matters, which is why obtaining an outcome without a finding of guilt is worth pursuing.
Section 146 protections are strongest before a statement exists. Duty counsel is available free at any hour.
Parents are entitled to notice and are expected at court. Your presence and support are relevant to the release plan and, later, to sentencing.
Counsel makes the case for a caution or an extrajudicial sanction, which resolves the matter without a finding of guilt.
School supports, counselling, or a substance or mental health assessment obtained early carry real weight with youth Crowns and youth court judges.
Youth matters may be handled by Lexaltico LLP or referred to experienced criminal defence counsel within our LexKonnect consortium, depending on the charge and the courthouse. Any referral arrangement is disclosed to the client and the parents in writing before it takes effect and complies with Rule 3.6-6 of the Law Society of Ontario's Rules of Professional Conduct. The young person's interests govern the choice of counsel.
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