A domestic assault charge in Ontario is not withdrawn because the complainant asks for it to be. The Crown prosecutes, the conditions imposed on release usually separate a family the same day, and which section is charged decides the immigration consequence.
About this work
No, and this is the question we are asked before any other. Once police lay a charge the prosecution belongs to the Crown. The complainant becomes a witness in a case between the Crown and the accused, and a witness does not control whether a case proceeds.
A complainant who no longer supports the prosecution can tell the Crown so, and it is one of the things the Crown weighs when deciding whether there is a reasonable prospect of conviction and whether prosecution is in the public interest. It is a factor, not a decision.
What matters far more is what the accused does with that information, which is nothing. Any approach to a complainant about the case, however gentle, however well meant, and however it is routed through relatives, risks a charge of breaching the no contact condition and can be characterised as an attempt to interfere with a witness. Both are worse than the charge that is already there. If a complainant wants to communicate something to the court, they can obtain their own advice and speak to the Crown directly.
The first day
Most of what people want to change about a domestic file has already happened by the time they call. Understanding what is fixed and what is not is the difference between making the situation better and making it considerably worse.
In Canada a prosecution belongs to the Crown, not to the person who called the police. A complainant who wants the matter dropped can say so, and the Crown will consider it along with everything else, but they cannot end it. Police and Crown policy in Ontario treats these files as ones that proceed unless there is a reason not to.
Release almost always comes with a condition not to communicate with the complainant, directly or indirectly, and often not to attend a residence. Breaching that is a separate criminal offence prosecuted on its own, and it does more damage to a file than the original allegation in most cases. Anything that needs to be said goes through counsel.
Under paragraph 515(6)(b.1) the accused has to show cause why detention is not justified where violence was allegedly used, threatened or attempted against their intimate partner and they have a previous conviction or a discharge under section 730 for such an offence. Paragraph 515(6)(b) does the same where the accused is charged with an indictable offence and is not ordinarily resident in Canada.
Not as a punishment and not because anybody has decided the allegation is true, but because a condition of release commonly requires it while the matter is outstanding. Arrangements for belongings, for children and for the mortgage or rent are made through counsel and the court, not by going back.
Side by side
5 points of difference
Domestic assault is not itself an offence in the Criminal Code. It is an ordinary assault charge in a domestic setting, and the section the Crown chooses changes the maximum penalty, which in turn changes the immigration consequence entirely.
The route
5 stages, each with its own clock
The sequence below is how these files actually run in Ontario, and the provision is named beside each stage where one governs it. What happens at each stage narrows what is possible at the next.
A condition not to communicate with the complainant, directly or indirectly, and usually not to attend an address. These bind from the moment of release. Breaching one is prosecuted as its own offence and is the single most common way a defensible file becomes an indefensible one.
Ordinarily the Crown must show why detention is justified. That reverses where there is a prior intimate partner violence conviction or discharge, and separately where the accused is charged with an indictable offence and is not ordinarily resident in Canada.
The statements, the notes, the photographs, the 911 recording and any medical records. Whether the file stays at section 266 or moves to section 267 is decided on this material, and for a non-citizen that decision matters more than the eventual sentence.
A peace bond under section 810 is a common outcome on a first allegation with no injury. It is a recognizance to keep the peace and be of good behaviour for a period of not more than twelve months, and it is not a conviction and not a finding of guilt.
Abuse of an intimate partner is a statutory aggravating factor on sentence. The court is required to take it into account, which is why domestic files sentence more heavily than the same conduct between strangers.
Before the meeting
6 things to bring
Bring what you have and say what is missing. A meeting with the papers in front of it settles in one sitting what two telephone calls will not.
Our approach
The same four steps on every matter, whether it is a refusal at the Federal Court or a ticket at the Provincial Offences court.
Book a consultationWe take the full history and read the documents before offering an opinion. Most bad advice comes from acting on half the facts.
You get a candid read on strength, timeline and cost, including when the honest answer is that you do not need to hire anyone.
We prepare the application, the defence or the appeal properly the first time, because fixing a weak record later is harder and dearer.
You hear from us at each stage, and you hear what a wait actually means rather than a date chosen to sound better.
Reported decisions
7 allowed of 22 reported since 2023
Public judgments of the Federal Court with Kapil Rathod as counsel of record, each checkable by citation on the court's own site. The rest were dismissed and are listed with these ones.
Super visa, parents and grandparents
2026 FC 99Docket IMM-23381-24
Application allowedWork permit, Temporary Foreign Worker Program
2026 FC 105Docket IMM-18690-24
Application allowedTemporary resident visa
2026 FC 805Docket IMM-20802-24
Application allowedPermanent residence, Express Entry
2025 FC 275Docket IMM-1797-24
Application allowedWork permit, job offer
2024 FC 1928Docket IMM-6445-23
Application allowedStudy permit
2024 FC 1487Docket IMM-3700-23
Application allowedTemporary resident visa
2024 FC 1453Docket IMM-10337-23
Application allowedA domestic assault charge in Ontario runs on decisions made early: the conditions imposed on release, and whether the Crown proceeds under section 266 or section 267.
Both are settled long before a trial date, and for anybody who is not a citizen the second one decides considerably more than the sentence will.
Common questions
8 answered here
Written to be read once and acted on rather than to be rung about. Each answer is complete where the law allows a complete answer.
Usually three things. No communication with the complainant, directly or indirectly. No attendance at a named address, which is frequently the family home. And sometimes a condition about weapons, alcohol or reporting.
Indirectly is the word that catches people. Passing a message through a relative, a friend or a child is indirect communication. So is a message sent from another account, and so is contact the complainant initiated and the accused replied to. The condition binds the accused whatever the complainant does.
Conditions can be varied, and where the parties genuinely want contact restored that is done properly: an application to vary, on notice, with the Crown's position and the court's approval. It is slower than everybody wants and it is the only route that does not create a second criminal charge.
Practical arrangements are dealt with the same way. Retrieving belongings is usually done once, at an agreed time, with police present, under a term of the order. Nobody should be improvising this.
Because the maximum penalty for the section, not the sentence actually imposed, decides the immigration consequence. Section 266 assault carries a maximum of five years on indictment. The section 267 offences carry ten.
Ten years is the threshold in section 36(1) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, which is serious criminality and which reaches permanent residents as well as foreign nationals. Five years falls under section 36(2), ordinary criminality, which reaches foreign nationals only and cannot be used to remove a permanent resident at all.
So for a permanent resident the difference between a section 266 charge and a section 267 charge is the difference between a criminal matter and an immigration case. That is decided by the Crown on the disclosure, early, and it is the thing worth engaging with first.
One further change matters here. Choking, suffocating and strangling were added to section 267 in 2019. Allegations that would once have been prosecuted as simple assault now sit in the ten year bracket, and a great many domestic allegations include a description of that kind.
Not at a trial, in most cases. On a first allegation without injury, where the accused has no record, a peace bond under section 810 is a common resolution. The accused enters a recognizance to keep the peace and be of good behaviour for up to twelve months, the charge is withdrawn, and there is no conviction and no finding of guilt.
Ontario also runs partner assault response programmes, and completing one is frequently part of how a matter resolves. Whether either route is available depends on the allegation, the record and the Crown's assessment, and neither is something anybody can promise at the outset.
Where the evidence does not support the charge, the answer is a withdrawal or a trial rather than a resolution. Those cases are identified by reading the disclosure carefully: what the complainant said at the time against what is in the statement, what the notes record, what any injury is actually consistent with, and what the 911 call captured.
Anybody who tells you at the first meeting how your case will end has not read any of that.
Because the charge is not theirs to drop. The prosecution is between the Crown and the accused, and the complainant is a witness in it. Their wishes are something the Crown weighs when deciding whether to continue, and the Crown decides. The important point is that the accused should not be the person raising this with them, because that risks a breach charge and an allegation of interfering with a witness.
Not unless the order allows it. Attending an address you are prohibited from attending is a criminal offence in itself, whoever invited you. The normal arrangement is a single supervised attendance, at an agreed time, with police present, provided for in the order. Your lawyer arranges it.
Not necessarily. A peace bond under section 810 resolves a substantial number of these files and is not a conviction. Whether it is available depends on the allegation, on your record and on the Crown's view of the evidence. What creates a record is a finding of guilt, and there are several outcomes short of one.
It depends on the section. A conviction under section 266, with its five year maximum, falls under section 36(2) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, which does not reach permanent residents. A conviction under section 267, at ten years, falls under section 36(1), which does. That is why the charging decision has to be engaged with early rather than after a plea.
It is relevant, and it is not the whole question. An assault under section 266 does not require any injury at all. What the absence of injury can affect is which section the Crown proceeds under, whether a peace bond is realistic, and what any eventual sentence looks like. Those are assessed from the disclosure rather than from the fact on its own.
Bring your release conditions and your next court date. A domestic assault charge in Ontario is assessed from those and from the disclosure, and the conditions bind from today.
