The long arm of Canadian law may extend to the lunar surface, as the government seeks to warn Canadian astronauts that if they commit crimes on the moon, they will still face criminal charges.
The proposed amendment to the code, which will include crimes committed on the moon, can be found deep in the 443-page Budget Execution Act, which was submitted to the House of Commons on Tuesday.
The Penal Code already recognizes astronauts who may commit crimes during a space flight to the International Space Station. Any such crime committed there is considered to have been committed in Canada.
But since Canada is part of the Lunar Gateway project, which also includes a planned trip to the moon, the federal government has decided to amend the Penal Code to include these new space destinations.
A Canadian heads to the moon
In the Budget Execution Act, under the title Lunar Gateway – Canadian crew members, the amendment reads:
“A member of a Canadian crew who commits an act or omission outside of Canada during a space flight which, if committed in Canada, would constitute a felony, shall be deemed to have committed that act or omission in Canada.
This, according to the amendment, includes any action or omission performed on the lunar portal while being transported to or from the lunar portal or on the surface of the moon.
Canada has pledged to participate in the Lunar Gateway, a NASA-supported orbital space platform. In fact, the federal budget for 2022 notes that the 2019 budget announced an investment of $ 1.9 billion over 24 years to build and operate Canadarm 3 for the project.
In December 2020, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and NASA signed an agreement confirming Canada’s participation in the Lunar Gateway. He also confirmed that the Canadian will be part of the Artemis II mission, the first manned mission to the moon since 1972.
Pending these missions, the federal government wants to amend the penal code to include potential crimes that could be committed.
Canada will head to the moon with NASA. The Canadian Space Agency will build robotics for Lunar Gateway, as well as develop artificial intelligence for the station. (NASA)
The question of potential crimes committed in space arose in 2019, when NASA is investigating what is characterized as the first alleged crime in space. Astronaut Anne McClain, on a six-month mission aboard the International Space Station, has been accused by her estranged husband, Summer Warden, of improper access to bank records from space. McClain was later released and Warden was accused of making false statements to federal authorities.
But the case has raised potential space law issues. While the case appeared in the headlines, Ram Jahu, a professor at the McGill University Institute of Air and Space Law, wrote that the investigation served as an “urgent wake-up call” to establish new legal rules for extraterritorial law.
With the expected exponential growth of space activities, it can reasonably be expected that the number of future space crimes will increase in the future, he wrote. They can range from “killings in space, to hijacking a spacecraft and to detonating a nuclear device in space.”
“It would be logical and imperative that these rules be the same for all people flying in space, despite the fact that they have different terrestrial nationalities.
An artistic concept for the Lunar Gateway’s Canadarm 3 big arm, run by NASA’s lunar orbit space station that will be used to explore the moon and beyond. (Canadian Space Agency, NASA)
International space law
There are five international treaties regulating space activities, but the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, ratified by Canada and more than 100 other countries, is the most appropriate when it comes to tackling alleged space crimes, writes Daniel Ireland. Piper, Associate Professor. in Constitutional and International Law at Bond University in Australia.
“As for who is prosecuting space crimes, the short answer is that a space criminal usually obeys the law of the state of which he is a national or of the country on board whose registered spacecraft the crime was committed,” Ireland wrote. in a 2019 article for The Conversation.
The International Space Station has its own intergovernmental agreement, which states that “Canada, European Partner Countries, Japan, Russia and the United States may exercise criminal jurisdiction over personnel in or on any flight element that are their respective nationals.”
But if the victim of a crime committed on the ISS is a citizen of another partner nation, the criminal law of that other nation will apply, writes Irleand-Piper. And if a crime has been committed in the part of the space station of a partner country, its criminal law can be applied.
The International Space Station has its own intergovernmental agreement, which states that “Canada, European Partner Countries, Japan, Russia and the United States may exercise criminal jurisdiction over personnel in or on any flight element that is their respective nationals.” (Canadian Space Agency)
The proposed Holocaust denial law is part of the budget bill
It may seem strange that the federal budget will even focus on issues related to potential space crimes, but this is just one of several proposals included this year that would not necessarily involve budget spending.
For example, the budget includes a proposal to amend the Penal Code to make it a crime to deny or belittle the Holocaust.
He also proposed amendments to the Corrections and Conditional Release Act that would prohibit the Canadian Correctional Service from using a controversial form of detention known as “dry cells” in which prisoners suspected of smuggling their bodies , are subject to 24-hour penalty lighting and surveillance and are deprived of access to running water.
In addition, the 2022 budget proposes to amend the Judges Act, the Federal Courts Act and the Tax Court of Canada Act to add 24 new Supreme Court posts.
Daniel Beland, director of the McGill Research Institute of Canada, said the inclusion of such provisions has become more common as budget documents become larger as governments use the document to show their position on various issues. questions.
“There are many things in these documents that are, I would say, rhetoric or prehistory. And it’s not really just about saying we’re going to spend on this or that.
Although the amendments should in fact be made separately, Beland said, including them in the budget means “saying what they are and where they are going”.
“So it’s more like just saying they intend to do something.”
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