Markham Weapons Offence Lawyer

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Nobody thinks of a multi-tool on a belt, a baseball bat behind the driver's seat or a folding knife in a jacket as the start of a criminal file. Canadian law can. The Criminal Code defines a weapon by what a person meant to do with a thing, not by what the thing is, and two short sections, s. 88 and s. 90, turn intent and concealment into indictable charges with ten and five year ceilings. This page covers the non-firearm weapons lane in Markham: everyday objects, knives, lookalike guns and the prohibited lists. If your charge involves an actual firearm, licences or a loaded handgun, start with our Markham firearms offence lawyer page instead.

By Fadi Matthew Kazandji, Founding Partner, Kazandji Law. Updated July 2026.

Purpose is the whole case: how everyday objects turn into weapons

Section 2 of the Criminal Code defines a weapon as any thing used, designed to be used or intended for use in causing death or injury to any person, or for the purpose of threatening or intimidating any person. Firearms are included automatically. And for a handful of offences, including the dangerous-purpose and weapon-assault sections discussed below, the definition stretches further, to any thing used or intended to bind or tie up a person against their will.

Read that definition again and notice what is missing: a list. Parliament did not define weapons by naming objects. It defined them by purpose, which means the same screwdriver is a tool in a contractor's pocket at noon and, on the Crown's theory, a weapon in a parking lot confrontation at midnight. A bottle, a wrench, a lit cigarette, a dog leash: anything can cross the line, and the thing that carries it across is evidence of what the person meant to do.

That cuts both ways, and defence work in this lane lives in the cut. If purpose is what makes an object a weapon, then purpose is what the Crown must prove, usually from context: what was said before and during the incident, how the object was held or shown, where it was carried, when it was picked up. Context evidence is interpretable, and the innocent reading of the same facts, a tradesperson's tools, a bat that lives in the car with the gloves, a knife bought for camping, is not a technicality. It is the defence.

The binding and tying extension

One more reach of the definition deserves its own note. For the dangerous-purpose offence, for assault with a weapon and for one of the sexual offences, Parliament extended weapon to include any thing used, designed to be used or intended for use in binding or tying up a person against their will. Tape, cord, zip ties, a belt: in an allegation involving restraint, ordinary objects acquire weapon status through that extension, and a count that looks strange on first read, assault with a weapon where the weapon is a phone cord, is usually this provision at work. The extension matters most in domestic and confinement-adjacent files, where what was grabbed mid-incident becomes a charging decision afterwards.

Carrying something for protection: the s. 88 trap

Section 88 makes it an offence to carry or possess a weapon, an imitation of a weapon, a prohibited device or any ammunition or prohibited ammunition for a purpose dangerous to the public peace or for the purpose of committing an offence. It is hybrid, with a ten year maximum on indictment. Notice it covers imitations expressly: a convincing fake can ground the charge just as the real thing can.

The classic Markham fact pattern is self-protection. Someone has been threatened, or robbed once already, and starts keeping a knife in a pocket or a bat by the door of the car. It feels like prudence. On the Crown's reading it is a dangerous purpose, arming for a confrontation, and the charge lands under s. 88. Whether it holds depends on the purpose fight: what the person said when stopped, the timing of the arming relative to any conflict, whether there was a specific person they expected to meet, how the item was carried.

How the purpose fight actually gets litigated

Purpose is proven, and attacked, through timelines. When was the item acquired, and was that before or after the threat the person says they feared? Was the route that night ordinary or a detour toward a confrontation? What do the messages on the phone say about what was expected? Did the person mention the item to anyone, and in what terms? The statutory phrase is a purpose dangerous to the public peace, and the distance between that and generalized anxiety about a rough neighbourhood is defence territory. Note also the breadth of what can be carried: s. 88 reaches imitations, prohibited devices and even ammunition, so the charge does not fail merely because the object could not actually hurt anyone.

The words spoken at the roadside or the mall office often decide these files. An explanation that sounds harmless in the moment, I carry it in case somebody tries something, is exactly the sentence a prosecutor will read back at trial as an admission of purpose. Which is one more reason the right time to explain yourself is after legal advice, not before.

Out of sight is its own offence: s. 90 and concealment

Section 90 criminalizes carrying a weapon, a prohibited device or any prohibited ammunition concealed, unless the person is authorized under the Firearms Act to carry it concealed. Hybrid, five year maximum on indictment. It is the quieter sibling of s. 88, and the two often arrive together on the same facts: the dangerous-purpose count aimed at why the thing was carried, the concealment count aimed at how.

Concealment has its own texture. A knife clipped visibly to a belt sits differently than the same knife inside a waistband; a bat on the back seat differently than one slid under the driver's seat. The Crown has to establish both that the item met the weapon definition, purpose included, and that it was actually concealed rather than merely stowed. Everyday carrying arrangements, a tool bag, a glovebox, a backpack, generate genuine arguments about whether anything was hidden in the criminal sense or simply put where that object normally lives.

Stowed, or hidden?

Concealment is a factual conclusion, not a label. The statute does not say out of sight; it says concealed, and courts have to decide whether the circumstances show an intent to hide the thing from observation. A knife at the bottom of a camping pack reads differently from a knife taped under a dashboard. The location, the accessibility, the explanation for why the item lives where it lives: each feeds the inference. Where the storage arrangement is the one any reasonable owner of that object would use, the criminal-concealment inference weakens, and with it the count.

The Firearms Act authorization exception matters to almost nobody, because concealed-carry authorization is vanishingly rare in Canada. For practical purposes, the defence work is in the two elements: weapon, and concealed.

When the item itself is the offence: automatic knives and the prohibited lists

Everything above turns on purpose. A narrower set of charges turns on the item alone, and this is where most of the knife mythology in York Region comes from, so let us be precise about what the Criminal Code actually says.

Under section 84(1), a prohibited weapon is a knife with a blade that opens automatically by gravity or centrifugal force, or by hand pressure applied to a button, spring or other device in or attached to the handle. Flick-open mechanisms, in other words. The same definition also captures any non-firearm weapon that regulations prescribe as prohibited. A prohibited device is a separate category that includes, among other things, replica firearms, devices designed to muffle a firearm's sound, certain handgun barrels and prescribed cartridge magazines.

Possessing a prohibited weapon or prohibited device without being licensed to do so is an offence under s. 91(2), hybrid with a five year ceiling. Do it knowing you are not the holder of a licence and s. 92(2) applies instead, straight indictable, ten years. The item is the offence; no dangerous purpose is required.

Now the myths. There is no blade-length rule in these Criminal Code sections. What the Code prohibits is the opening mechanism, not the size of the knife, so the folding knife question is a mechanism question. As for the items people ask about constantly, brass knuckles, tasers, pepper spray, those are dealt with through the regulations that prescribe weapons and devices, and the lists are technical enough that the only responsible answer is to check the specific item against the current regulations rather than rely on general talk. The same goes for lookalike guns: a replica firearm, meaning a device designed to closely resemble a real firearm while not being one, is a prohibited device, while some low-powered airsoft-type items sit in a carve-out territory with rules of their own. Bring the item's details to a lawyer before assuming anything, in either direction.

Replicas, airsoft and the velocity carve-outs

The lookalike rules are their own maze. A replica firearm is a device designed to closely resemble a real firearm, one whose projectile speed and energy would exceed the legal thresholds, while itself not being a firearm; replicas are prohibited devices. Meanwhile some low-powered barrelled items fall outside the firearm rules for the main possession offences entirely, because the Code deems items below set velocity and energy thresholds not to be firearms for those sections. So the same airsoft pistol can be innocuous on a shelf, a prohibited device if it copies a real model closely enough, and the engine of a dangerous-purpose or robbery count the moment it is pointed at someone. Specifications decide the category, which is why the box, the manual and the chronograph numbers can end up as defence exhibits.

When a weapon count rides another file: s. 267 and its neighbours

Weapons allegations rarely travel alone. The most common companion is s. 267: an assault becomes assault with a weapon where the person carries, uses or threatens to use a weapon or an imitation of one, and the same section covers assaults causing bodily harm and, since 2019, choking, suffocating or strangling. Hybrid, ten years on indictment. Where injuries rise to wounding or endangering life, aggravated assault carries fourteen. If your file pairs a weapon with an assault allegation, our Markham assault offence lawyer page covers that intersection in depth.

Weapons also attach to threats files and domestic files, where an object picked up mid-argument becomes a count on its own, and to robbery files, where an imitation firearm can support both the robbery and a separate consecutive-sentence charge. And where a person is already under a court weapons prohibition, possessing almost anything on the prohibited spectrum becomes a fresh offence with its own ten year ceiling; that breach offence, s. 117.01, is covered on our firearms offence page, since it most often appears in gun files.

The strategic point about travelling counts: they multiply exposure on paper, but they share evidence in fact. The weapon element usually rests on the same few seconds of video or the same witness sentence across every count. Win the weapon fight once and several counts feel it at the same time.

For orientation, here is the non-firearm weapons lane on one card:

Charge	What the Crown must show	Procedure and ceiling
Possession for a dangerous purpose (s. 88)	A weapon, imitation, prohibited device or ammunition, carried or possessed for a purpose dangerous to the public peace or to commit an offence	Hybrid; 10 years on indictment
Carrying a concealed weapon (s. 90)	A weapon, prohibited device or prohibited ammunition, carried concealed, without Firearms Act authorization	Hybrid; 5 years on indictment
Possession of a prohibited weapon or device (s. 91(2))	The item itself, held without a licence	Hybrid; 5 years on indictment
The same, knowing you were unlicensed (s. 92(2))	The item plus proof you knew you were not the holder of a licence	Straight indictable; 10 years
Assault with a weapon (s. 267)	An assault, plus carrying, using or threatening to use a weapon or imitation	Hybrid; 10 years on indictment

Conditions, seized property and whether it comes back

From the first minutes of a weapons arrest, things get taken: the item itself, often a phone, sometimes every knife or tool in a car. Expect the exhibit to stay with police for the life of the case, and expect anything on the prohibited lists to be gone for good. Whether lawful property eventually comes back depends on how the case ends and on the orders made along the way; forfeiture of the item is a routine ask by the Crown on conviction, and getting property returned after a withdrawal or acquittal is a process, not an automatic mail-out. Keep receipts, ask for the property report early, and let counsel manage the request.

Two practical habits help. First, get the property receipt and keep your own inventory of what was taken, because months later the file will describe items from memory. Second, if something seized is a work tool, say so through counsel early; the difference between an exhibit and a livelihood is worth a variation application or a targeted request rather than a year of waiting.

Release from custody almost always comes with weapons terms: no possession of weapons as defined by the Criminal Code, sometimes no knives outside the home except for work or food preparation, sometimes conditions about specific places. Read those terms literally, because breach is a fresh criminal charge, and a vague condition about weapons plus the s. 2 definition can make ordinary life legally hazardous. If a condition is unworkable, the answer is a variation application, not improvisation.

Bail itself is usually a Crown-onus hearing in this lane, heard at the Newmarket courthouse at 50 Eagle Street West, the criminal courthouse serving all of York Region; the onus reverses in defined situations, including where the new offence involves a prohibited weapon or device and the person was already under a weapons prohibition order. Toronto runs its bail through a dedicated centre on Finch Avenue West; York Region does everything at the one Newmarket address, with most routine appearances by video. Preparation for the hearing itself is covered on our Markham bail lawyer page.

Section 110: the discretionary ban, and when it can last for life

Sentencing in a weapons file carries a second track that many people learn about too late: the prohibition order. Two provisions do the work. Section 109 makes a weapons prohibition mandatory on conviction for an indictable offence in which violence against a person was used, threatened or attempted and which carries ten years or more; assault with a weapon prosecuted by indictment fits that description. The mandatory order runs at least ten years for non-restricted firearms and for life on the prohibited and restricted side.

Where the mandatory rule does not bite, section 110 gives the court a discretionary power to prohibit weapons possession where it is desirable in the interests of safety, generally for up to ten years. And where the offence involved an intimate partner, the discretionary order can extend up to life. A prohibition order reaches well past guns: firearms, crossbows, prohibited weapons and devices, firearm parts, ammunition and explosives can all be covered. For a tradesperson, a hunter or anyone whose family owns firearms, the order is often a heavier long-term consequence than the sentence itself, and it deserves its own argument at the hearing rather than a shrug at the end.

The prohibition stage is also an advocacy stage, not an administrative one. Where the order is discretionary, duration and scope are open questions: what the person does for work, whether the household hunts, whether an exemption structure makes sense. Even mandatory orders leave questions worth arguing. Treating the order as an afterthought at the end of a sentencing hearing is how people end up living under terms nobody actually considered.

Living under an order is its own legal category: possessing a covered item while prohibited is the breach offence described on our firearms page, and it turns shelves, garages and inherited property into risk. When an order comes, the household needs to be swept, honestly and immediately.

Most weapons files start as something else

Very few weapons charges in Markham begin as weapons investigations. They begin as a domestic call where officers walk through the house and take what they see. A neighbour dispute that ends with someone describing a bat or a knife. A mall security stop at CF Markville or Pacific Mall that turns up a folding knife in a bag. A traffic stop on Highway 7 where a search finds the multi-tool in the console. A pat-down outside a bar. The weapons count is usually the add-on that follows some other interaction, which is exactly why the circumstances of that first interaction deserve legal scrutiny.

In Markham, arrest processing runs through York Regional Police #5 District at 8700 McCowan Road, with investigative follow-up by district Criminal Investigations Bureau detectives. There is no special weapons squad behind most of these files; there is an officer's decision in a hallway or at a roadside, made quickly, about purpose and concealment. Decisions made that fast are reviewable, and the review is where defences come from: was the stop lawful, was the search justified, was the questioning proper, and do the observations actually support the elements.

The setting shapes these files too. A folding knife in a workplace dispute reads differently from the same knife outside a bar at closing time, and an object in a car during a family argument reads differently from one produced during a parking lot confrontation near a plaza. Police decisions in the moment compress all of that context into a charge; the litigation decompresses it.

It is worth saying plainly that for many clients a weapons count is their first contact with the criminal system, and the file is as much about protecting a record, a job and travel plans as it is about the courtroom. The early triage matters: get the disclosure, get the conditions workable, open a conversation with the Crown once the weaknesses are mapped, and make no decisions about pleas until the purpose and classification questions have actually been tested. Weeks one and two set the trajectory that months six and seven have to live with.

Innocent purpose and the other exits

How do weapons files actually end well? Along a few well-worn paths:

• Innocent purpose. Work, sport, camping, transport to or from a legitimate activity. If the purpose evidence reads as ordinary life rather than preparation for conflict, the s. 88 count loses its engine.
• No concealment. An object stored where that object normally lives, visible or simply stowed, is not necessarily concealed in the criminal sense.
• Knowledge and control. Possession requires both. A knife in a borrowed car, a shared apartment's drawer, a bag packed by someone else: each raises the question of who actually possessed the thing.
• Item classification. Whether the mechanism really is automatic-opening, whether the lookalike really is a replica, whether the item is actually prescribed. Classification can be tested, sometimes with an expert, sometimes with a screwdriver and the current regulations.
• The Charter. Pat-downs, vehicle searches, questioning without counsel: weapons files are small enough that a single successful exclusion application usually ends them.

No outcomes are promised on this page, and you should distrust anyone who promises them. The honest statement is this: weapons charges are context cases, contexts can be re-examined, and early, senior attention to the first hours of the file is what makes that possible.

And a first-week checklist, if the charge is fresh: write down your own account while it is sharp, including why the item was where it was; photograph or preserve anything showing how it was normally stored or used; keep receipts or packaging that show what the item actually is; and list who saw what. Small records like these are what innocent-purpose arguments are eventually built from.

Four offices and one number for York Region weapons files

Kazandji Law defends weapons allegations across the Greater Toronto Area from four offices: Toronto headquarters at 180 John Street, Unit 320; the Thornhill office at 7191 Yonge Street, Suite 310, closest to Markham and the working base for York Region matters; and offices in North York and Oakville. Founding partner Fadi Matthew Kazandji takes these cases personally, and in this lane that matters, because weapons files are decided by details that get missed when nobody senior reads the first disclosure closely.

If your matter is in Toronto rather than York Region, our Toronto weapons defence lawyers page covers those courthouses and their rhythms. The full range of York Region services, from bail to appeals, lives on our Markham criminal defence lawyer hub.

Markham weapons charge questions, answered directly

This page is general legal information for people facing charges in Ontario, not legal advice about any specific case. Criminal Code provisions summarized here were checked against the federal Justice Laws website in July 2026 and can change, and the regulations prescribing particular weapons and devices are technical and item-specific. Speak with a lawyer about your own situation before acting on anything you read here. Kazandji Law serves Markham and all of York Region from its Thornhill and Toronto offices.