It is the legal right of every Canadian to directly approach the Crown to seek the pressing of criminal charges privately, without police assistance. Some victims of criminal obstetric violence, which includes but is not limited to the indictable offenses of assault, sexual assault and forcible confinement, may find the police in their jurisdiction unhelpful, due to ignorance or denial of relevant Canadian law, as well as due to systemic bias against pregnant women. When this happens, the filing of a private prosecution against the perpetrator(s) is the next procedural step.
Detailed instructions outlining how to file a private prosecution will appear on this page as soon as possible.
One of MASC’s many goals is to develop and provide downloadable, digitally-fillable PDFs of the relevant private prosecution paperwork for every province, free of charge.