The 8-step path.
Establish reasonable grounds.
s.504 requires that you believe, on reasonable grounds, that an indictable offence has been committed. Reasonable grounds is the same threshold a police officer uses for an arrest: articulable facts that a reasonable person would believe support an inference of criminal conduct. It is not "beyond reasonable doubt" (that is the trial standard).
The 504 Database on this site exists to help you assess this threshold using the named, sourced public record.
→ 504-database.html · accountability.htmlIdentify the indictable offence(s).
Examples relevant to this dossier (each one is an indictable offence under Canadian law):
- Breach of trust by a public officer — Criminal Code s.122
- Fraud on the government — Criminal Code s.121
- Obstruction of justice — Criminal Code s.139
- Perjury — Criminal Code s.131–132
- Genocide / crimes against humanity / war crimes — Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act ss.4, 6, 7
- Aiding and abetting — Criminal Code s.21 / Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act
You do not need to lay only one charge. A single information can list multiple counts.
→ Criminal Code (laws-lois) · Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes ActGet Form 2 (Information).
The standard form for a private information is Form 2 in the Criminal Code. Your provincial court provides the official template; in most provinces, the courthouse Justice of the Peace office will give it to you, or it is downloadable from the provincial court's forms registry.
TENET5 hosts a sample completed Form 2 for one of the existing dossier filings (the Covey-Bae filing) for reference shape only:
→ Information_s504_Covey_Bae_et_al.pdf (sample shape, reference only)Draft the information.
Form 2 requires:
- The name of the informant (you).
- The name of the accused (or, if unknown, a description sufficient to identify).
- The date(s) and place(s) of the alleged offence.
- A short statement of the offence (the act, named to a Criminal Code section or schedule offence).
- A statement that you believe the facts on reasonable grounds.
Plain language is fine. The information must be under oath — meaning you will swear or affirm before the justice of the peace that the facts as stated are true to your knowledge or that you believe them on reasonable grounds.
Tip — keep it factual
Don't editorialise. State the facts: who, what, when, where, what document supports it. The justice of the peace's screening test is whether the information discloses an offence and whether reasonable grounds exist. Florid rhetoric weakens that test.
Attach the evidence package.
Bring the documents that support reasonable grounds. These can include:
- Office of the Auditor General reports.
- Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner findings.
- House of Commons Hansard divisions and committee testimony.
- Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying registrations.
- Court records and judgments.
- Commission transcripts (Inquiries Act).
- Government of Canada published data (GAC export reports, Public Accounts, Indigenous Services trackers, Health Canada MAID statistics, etc.).
All of these are public documents with government provenance. The 504 Database on this site is organised exactly to make assembling this package straightforward.
→ argument-sources.html (consolidated bibliography)Take the information to a Justice of the Peace.
Go to your provincial superior or provincial court (every province has Justice of the Peace intake — usually at the courthouse, often the criminal-intake counter or the Justice of the Peace office directly). Ask for the Justice of the Peace receiving informations under s.504.
You will:
- Present the completed Form 2.
- Swear or affirm before the JP.
- Produce the supporting documents.
- Receive a court file number.
The JP will then schedule a pre-enquete hearing under Criminal Code s.507.1 (where the accused is a public official, this is the modern statutory pathway).
The pre-enquete (s.507.1).
At the pre-enquete, the JP decides whether to issue a process (a summons or warrant) compelling the accused to court. The JP will:
- Hear your evidence.
- Consider whether the information discloses an offence.
- Consider whether you have established reasonable grounds.
- Notify the Attorney General, who has the right to attend and to take over the prosecution.
If the JP issues process, the accused must appear. If the JP refuses to issue process, the information remains a public court record but does not proceed to a charge.
What if the AG stays the prosecution?
The Attorney General has the right under s.579 to stay any prosecution at any time. Most s.504 informations against sitting officials are stayed. That is not the same as being dismissed on the merits. The named information remains a public court record. It becomes part of the record the next jury, the next commission, or the next foreign court can read.
Document the filing publicly.
Whatever the prosecutorial outcome, the filing itself is an artifact. TENET5 maintains a tracker that records s.504 informations dispatched to all 17 superior court registries across Canada — file number, date, accused, offence, status. If you file, send a copy of the stamped information to contact so the record is preserved.
→ s504-court-filing.html (public tracker)What this looks like in practice — the existing record.
Daniel Perry — a Canadian Forces combat veteran of Afghanistan and the operator of this dossier — has filed s.504 informations as the existing record. The accountability.html page reproduces his direct testimony alongside the named-record database. The filing tracker follows each information across superior court registries.
You do not need to be a veteran or have been personally harmed to file. Any person who believes on reasonable grounds may lay an information. That is the explicit text of s.504.
Common objections, answered.
"Won't the charge just get stayed?"
Probably, if it names a sitting official. The point of the filing is not the staying outcome — it is the named, sworn court record. That record is durable. Foreign courts, commissions, and successor governments read it. The Attorney General's stay does not erase the filing; it preserves a different question (prosecutorial discretion) for a different audience.
"Isn't this just political?"
No. The threshold under s.504 is the same legal threshold — reasonable grounds — that police officers and Crown prosecutors apply every day. The Conflict of Interest Act, the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act, and the Criminal Code apply identically to politicians and civilians. Equal application of the law to public office holders is the opposite of political — it is the rule of law.
"What if I'm wrong?"
Laying a false information knowing it to be false is itself an indictable offence (Criminal Code s.140 — public mischief; s.131 — perjury). That is why the threshold is reasonable grounds, not certainty. If you are working from a public record (Hansard, court documents, commission transcripts, AG reports), and you cite that record honestly, you cannot be making a false statement — you are reporting what those records say.
"What if the JP refuses to issue process?"
The information remains a public court record. The refusal itself is reviewable in some provinces. Provincial court rules vary. Consult provincial court rules of practice for the appeal pathway in your jurisdiction.