Legal Ease, May 5

If you have been the victim of a crime, you may fear for your safety.

This is especially so if you live in a smaller community where you are inevitably going to come into contact with the accused or the friends and family of the accused.

If you are worried that the accused may harm you or your family, you should speak to the police to make sure that you have proper protection.

The police take such concerns seriously and will make reasonable precautions to protect you and your family.

The type of concerns that exist depend to a large degree on the crime and the relationship with the accused.

Fraud, for example, is a very serious crime, but once the accused has been found out it is most unlikely that there will be any further danger.

Similarly, someone charged with impaired driving is unlikely to pose much of a threat to someone they injured while driving drunk. There is almost never a personal animus in such offences and the impaired driver is not going to seek out the victims to cause them harm.

On the other hand, if your spouse has assaulted you, it may well be that your spouse will try to assault you again.

For reasons that make little sense, abusive spouses are often inclined to repeat their behaviour. Similarly, if you are a victim of a serious crime of violence, the accused may want to scare you into not testifying.

Of course, not all accused are dangerous, and indeed, many are deeply remorseful for any harm they have done. Sometimes an accused wants to contact a victim to apologize or make amends.

An accused may try to contact you for a variety of reasons. As mentioned, they may want to explain their actions.

Or they may want to threaten or scare you. If you have children in common they may just want to see the kids. If you share a home or business they may want to get their stuff.

Whatever the reason you should be cautious and if you have any safety concerns you should let the police know immediately.

Most of the time when an accused is not held in jail pending trial the accused is released on the basis that they cannot contact the victim except in accordance with very specific limitations.

And those limited contacts are almost always restricted to situations where there are children or assets in common and then the contact is normally through a third party.

If the accused has no ongoing business with the victim, release conditions almost always forbid contact. This means if the accused tries to get in touch with you it is proper to call the police and they will make sure the accused stops such contact.

Of course the police are not everywhere and cannot help if you have already been re-victimized by the accused.

As a result, you should exercise some prudence if you are concerned the accused may try to harm you.

Do not go walking alone when it’s dark — take a friend with you. Make sure you lock your doors at night. Be aware of your surroundings.

The normal precautions will serve you well.

James Morton is a lawyer practicing in Nunavut with offices in Iqaluit. The comments here are intended as general legal information and not as specific legal advice.