Article content continued

“You can defend your property, you can defend persons in your charge and you can defend yourself. In this case he can make an argument to all three, but he has to use proportional force,” said Gordon Dykstra, a criminal defence attorney in Abbotsford, B.C.

“I think if he gets in front of a jury and he’s halfway presentable, if he doesn’t have a criminal record and makes a good case for what happened, a jury will acquit him.”

But Toronto police suggest this might not be a perfect example for champions of self-defence rights.

“The man was charged because it is alleged the stabbing was excessive,” said Constable Tonyo Vella. “It is alleged that he stabbed the man a number of times. He’s fortunate to be alive.”

Key to the case is that the multiple stab wounds were inflicted both inside the home and outside, Const. Vella said, suggesting the occupants might have been able to close the door once he was outside and call police.

The scene of the incident was Parson Court, a pleasant street in west Toronto filled with large homes. The 32-year-old man who was stabbed was charged with break and enter.

Neither accused could be reached for comment.

Recent self-defence cases have not gone well for prosecutors.

Last month, Lawrence Manzer, of Burton, N.B., had a mistrial declared in charges stemming from a confrontation with intruders on his neighbour’s property. Sloppy paperwork was cited as the reason.

The same month Kim Walker, a Yorkton, Sask., welder, was sentenced to eight years after a jury declined to find him guilty of murder for killing his daughter’s boyfriend whom he deemed to be destroying his drug-addicted 16-year-old daughter. He was found guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter.