N/A, a sentencing option rather than an offence (unavailable where a minimum punishment applies or the offence carries 14 years or life)
This is not an offence. It lets a court find an accused guilty and then discharge them, absolutely or on probation conditions, instead of registering a conviction. Subsection 730(3) deems a discharged offender not to have been convicted, and because every branch of IRPA s.36(1) and s.36(2) is built on a conviction, a Canadian discharge does not create criminal inadmissibility on its own. A discharge is not available where the offence carries a minimum punishment or a maximum of 14 years or life. For an offence committed outside Canada, what matters is the equivalency assessment: an officer compares the foreign outcome to Canadian law rather than accepting the foreign label, so a foreign disposition that resembles a discharge is not automatically treated as one.
Not an offence, this is the outcome many people are hoping for: the judge finds you guilty and then does not register a conviction. An absolute discharge ends there, a conditional one runs through probation first, and the law then treats you as never having been convicted. It is not offered for every charge, and a foreign result that looks like a discharge still has to be measured against Canadian law before it counts as one.
(1) Where an accused, other than an organization, pleads guilty to or is found guilty of an offence, other than an offence for which a minimum punishment is prescribed by law or an offence punishable by imprisonment for fourteen years or for life, the court before which the accused appears may, if it considers it to be in the best interests of the accused and not contrary to the public interest, instead of convicting the accused, by order direct that the accused be discharged absolutely or on the conditions prescribed in a probation order made under subsection 731(2). (2) Subject to Part XVI, if an accused who has not been taken into custody or who has been released from custody under any provision of that Part pleads guilty to or is found guilty of an offence but is not convicted, the appearance notice, summons, undertaking or release order issued to, given or entered into by the accused continues in force, subject to its terms, until a disposition in respect of the accused is made under subsection (1) unless, at the time the accused pleads guilty or is found guilty, the court, judge or justice orders that the accused be taken into custody pending such a disposition. (3) Where a court directs under subsection (1) that an offender be discharged of an offence, the offender shall be deemed not to have been convicted of the offence except that (a) the offender may appeal from the determination of guilt as if it were a conviction in respect of the offence; (b) the Attorney General and, in the case of summary conviction proceedings, the informant or the informant’s agent may appeal from the decision of the court not to convict the offender of the offence as if that decision were a judgment or verdict of acquittal of the offence or a dismissal of the information against the offender; and (c) the offender may plead autrefois convict in respect of any subsequent charge relating to the offence. (4) Where an offender who is bound by the conditions of a probation order made at a time when the offender was directed to be discharged under this section is convicted of an offence, including an offence under section 733.1, the court that made the probation order may, in addition to or in lieu of exercising its authority under subsection 732.2(5), at any time when it may take action under that subsection, revoke the discharge, convict the offender of the offence to which the discharge relates and impose any sentence that could have been imposed if the offender had been convicted at the time of discharge, and no appeal lies from a conviction under this subsection where an appeal was taken from the order directing that the offender be discharged.