In Canadian law, a peace bond is an order from a criminal court that requires a person to keep the peace. A peace bond is a court order to keep the peace and be on good behavior for a period of time. This essentially means that the person must not be charged with a criminal offence
Peace bond is issued when the crown is strongly convinced that no guilt has happened. A person does not plead guilty when they enter into a peace bond. There is no finding of guilt made or conviction registered if a person agrees to a peace bond.
The bond is usually set for twelve months. If charges are withdrawn, the prosecution of those charges is finished and those same charges can never be brought back. It will be considered a dismissed case in the US legal system.
There is no equal order to the peace bond in the US system. If charges are withdrawn by a peace bond in Canada, since there is no conviction or admission of any guilt, they do Not Result in US inadmissibility under INA ยง 212 (a) (2); the issuance of a peace bond does not meet the definition for a conviction, in addition a judge does not make a judgment of guilt when a peace bond is issued. In these cases, after the twelve months peace bond, all the police records related to the withdrawn charge will be destroyed.
As a result a withdrawn charge with peace bond in Canadian legal system, is most equal to a dismissed charge in the US legal system.
Famous quotes containing the words peace and/or bond:
“come peace or war, the progress of America and Europe
Becomes a long process of deterioration—”
—Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962)
“It may comfort you to know that if your child reaches the age of eleven or twelve and you have a good bond or relationship, no matter how dramatic adolescence becomes, you children will probably turn out all right and want some form of connection to you in adulthood.”
—Charlotte Davis Kasl (20th century)