Skip to main content

Criminal Code

s. 279.03 Withholding or Destroying Documents (Trafficking)

Withholding or destroying documents — trafficking

  • Kidnapping & Trafficking in Persons
  • Kidnapping & Trafficking
Maximum sentence
5 years (documents) / 10 years (victim under 18)
Classification
Hybrid

Last verified: June 2026 · Source: laws-lois.justice.gc.ca

The law says

Criminal Code s. 279.03
Verify on justice.gc.ca(opens in a new tab)
  • (1)Every person who, for the purpose of committing or facilitating an offence under subsection 279.01(1), conceals, removes, withholds or destroys any travel document that belongs to another person or any document that establishes or purports to establish another person’s identity or immigration status — whether or not the document is of Canadian origin or is authentic — is guilty of (a) an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term of not more than five years; or
  • (b)an offence punishable on summary conviction.
  • (2)Everyone who, for the purpose of committing or facilitating an offence under subsection 279.011(1), conceals, removes, withholds or destroys any travel document that belongs to another person or any document that establishes or purports to establish another person’s identity or immigration status — whether or not the document is of Canadian origin or is authentic — is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term of not more than 10 years and to a minimum punishment of imprisonment for a term of one year.
Amendment History (4)
  • 2005, c. 43, s. 3
  • 2010, c. 3, s. 3
  • 2014, c. 25, s. 19
  • 2019, c. 25, s. 105

Justice Laws is the authoritative version. If this copy and it ever differ, Justice Laws wins.

Immigration

Where this offence sits under IRPA

This offence covers hiding or keeping another person’s papers, or destroying them, to commit or help human trafficking. The papers can be identity, travel or immigration documents. It is hybrid. The top sentence is 5 years. Where it serves trafficking of a person under 18 (s.279.011), it must be charged by indictment and the top sentence is 10 years. It can ground criminality under IRPA s.36. It can also ground organized criminality under s.37, where it was part of a criminal group's activity or of transnational crime. It also bears directly on the control of immigration documents.

This is how the law sorts the offence, not a reading of any one record. An officer decides each case.

IRPA sections involved

Related sections

Criminal Code s. 279.01Trafficking in PersonsIndictableCriminal Code s. 279.02Material Benefit from TraffickingHybridCriminal Code s. 279Kidnapping and Forcible ConfinementHybrid