Summary offence
crime that can be proceeded against summarily, without the right to a jury trial and/or indictment
A summary offence or petty offence is a violation in some common law jurisdictions that can be proceeded against summarily, without the right to a jury trial or indictment (required for an indictable offence).
Canada
In Canada, summary offences are referred to as summary conviction offences. As in other jurisdictions, summary conviction offences are considered less serious than indictable offences because they are punishable by shorter prison sentences and smaller fines. Section 787 of the Criminal Code specifies that unless another punishment is provided for by law, the maximum penalty for a summary conviction offence is a sentence of 2 years less a day of imprisonment, a fine of $5,000 or both.
As a matter of practical effect, some common differences between summary conviction and indictable offences are provided below.
Summary conviction offences
Accused must be charged with a summary conviction within one year after the act happened. Limitation periods are set out in the Criminal Code.
The police can arrest under summary conviction without an arrest warrant if found committing a summary offence notwithstanding s. 495(2)(c) of the Criminal Code.
If the police do not find committing a summary offence, an arrest warrant is required.
“Summary offence” enters the record as crime that can be proceeded against summarily, without the right to a jury trial and/or indictment. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Summary, offence and crime can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Summary offence” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Summary, offence and crime provides the most credible route into that argument.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2071040. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Summary offence” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.