Canada does not have felonies. The term is American, and the Canadian Criminal Code never adopted it. Instead, every criminal charge in Canada falls into one of three categories: summary conviction offences, indictable offences, or hybrid offences. When people ask about felonies in Canada, they are usually asking about indictable offences, which occupy the same top tier of seriousness and carry consequences comparable to a U.S. felony conviction.
Indictable Offences: The Canadian Equivalent of a Felony
Indictable offences are the most serious category of crime in Canadian law. Penalties range widely depending on the specific offence, and the most serious carry life imprisonment. There is no limitation period, so the Crown can lay charges years or even decades after the alleged conduct.
For most indictable offences, the accused gets to choose how the case is tried: by a provincial court judge, a superior court judge sitting alone, or a superior court judge with a jury. That election right is one of the defining procedural features of an indictable charge. A small number of the gravest offences, including murder, treason, and piracy, must be tried in superior court, and murder requires a judge and jury.1Justice Canada. Criminal Code RSC 1985 c C-46 – Section 469 At the other end, certain lower-value theft, fraud, and possession offences must be tried by a provincial court judge with no election.
The rough equivalence to American law is straightforward. An indictable offence in Canada corresponds to a felony in the United States, and a summary conviction offence corresponds to a misdemeanor. A Canadian court will never call a conviction a “felony,” and the terms are not legally interchangeable, but for practical purposes — job applications, border crossings, gauging seriousness — thinking of an indictable offence as felony-level gets you the right frame of reference.
Summary Conviction Offences: The Lower Tier
Summary conviction offences are the least serious criminal charges in Canada. The maximum penalty is a $5,000 fine, up to two years less a day in jail, or both.2Justice Canada. Criminal Code RSC 1985 c C-46 – Section 787 These cases are always heard in provincial court by a judge alone; there is no jury option. Causing a disturbance, trespassing at night, and indecent exposure are typical examples.
Summary offences also come with a hard limitation period. The Crown must lay charges within 12 months of the alleged offence, or the prosecution cannot proceed unless both sides agree to extend the deadline.3Justice Canada. Criminal Code RSC 1985 c C-46 – Section 786
Hybrid Offences: The Category With No Clean U.S. Analogue
A large portion of the Criminal Code is made up of hybrid offences, and this is where Canadian law diverges most sharply from the American model. In a hybrid offence, the Crown prosecutor chooses whether to treat the charge as summary or indictable.4Justice Canada. Criminal Offences – Canadian Victims Bill of Rights That decision, called an election, sets the maximum penalty, the court, and whether a jury is available. Until the Crown formally elects, the charge is treated as indictable by default.
Common assault illustrates the stakes. Prosecuted by indictment, it carries up to five years in prison; prosecuted summarily, the ceiling drops to two years less a day and a $5,000 fine.5Justice Canada. Criminal Code RSC 1985 c C-46 – Section 266 Theft works the same way at both value thresholds: theft over $5,000 can be prosecuted as an indictable offence carrying up to 10 years, or summarily.6Justice Canada. Criminal Code RSC 1985 c C-46 – Section 334 Impaired driving, sexual assault, and many drug offences are also hybrid.
The Crown weighs the seriousness of the conduct, any harm caused, and the accused’s prior record when electing. Some U.S. states have “wobbler” offences that work similarly, but they are the exception. In Canada, prosecutorial flexibility is built into the statute across a wide swath of the Code.
What an Indictable Conviction Means in Practice
An indictable or hybrid charge triggers police authority to fingerprint and photograph you under the Identification of Criminals Act.7Canada.ca. Identification of Criminals Act Pure summary offences that are not hybrid do not. Those prints feed into the RCMP’s national criminal record database and stay there unless you obtain a record suspension or the charge is withdrawn.
On employment checks, a full conviction with no record suspension remains visible indefinitely on a standard name-based police information check.8Royal Canadian Mounted Police. For Police – Dissemination of Criminal Record Information Policy If you received a discharge rather than a conviction, an absolute discharge drops off after one year and a conditional discharge after three, though vulnerable sector checks can still surface them.
Travel and Border Consequences
A Canadian indictable offence is often treated as the equivalent of a felony by U.S. border officers, which can lead to a denial of entry. Other countries maintain their own databases and do not recognize Canadian record suspensions, so a domestic pardon does not guarantee foreign entry.
The same logic runs the other way. If you have a foreign conviction and want to enter Canada, immigration officers assess whether the offence has a Canadian equivalent. If the equivalent would be indictable or hybrid, you may be found criminally inadmissible.9Canada.ca. Overcome Criminal Convictions Impaired driving, drug possession, theft, and assault all fall into this range. Three routes exist to overcome inadmissibility:
- Deemed rehabilitation, available at the border if at least 10 years have passed since sentence completion, you had only one conviction, and the Canadian equivalent carries a maximum of less than 10 years.10Government of Canada. Deemed Rehabilitation
- Individual rehabilitation, a formal paper application available after five years.
- A temporary resident permit for urgent travel before either rehabilitation option applies. The processing fee is $246.25.11Canada.ca. Citizenship and Immigration Application Fees – Fee List
Clearing an Indictable or Summary Record
A record suspension, once called a pardon, seals your criminal record from most standard background checks. Applications go to the Parole Board of Canada after a waiting period tied to how the offence was prosecuted. For summary convictions, you wait five years after completing the full sentence, including probation and fines. For indictable convictions, you wait ten.12Canada.ca. Determining Your Eligibility for Record Suspension or Pardon The application fee is $50.13Canada.ca. Fees Report 2024-2025
For hybrid offences, the waiting period follows the Crown’s election. A summary prosecution means five years; an indictable prosecution means ten. Some offences, including certain sexual offences involving minors, are not eligible at all. A suspension does not erase the conviction — it separates the record so it no longer appears on standard checks, and it can be revoked if you commit a new offence.