One judgment of the Superior Court says it is.
The defendant had asked a work colleague to bring another colleague to a specific place, so that he could kill the person. The colleague went to the place where they were supposed to meet, but didn’t bring along with her the person who was supposed to get killed by the defendant. It appears from the facts that the defendant did not encourage his colleague to kill the victim herself, but only to bring this person to a given place where he could commit the murder himself. Besides, the victim was finally never killed. Of course, the defendant was found guilty of attempted murder. But was he also guilty of the offence of encouraging his work colleague to help him kill the victim? According to the Superior Court, to encourage a person to help commit a crime, even though this crime is not committed, is an offence covered by Section 464 of the Criminal Code of Canada.
A criminal defense lawyer has the required knowledge to determine whether or not a charge corresponds to a crime and to select the appropriate defense, if necessary.
