Intimidation of Parliament is an obscure criminal law in Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 that makes it a crime to violently intimidate the Parliament of Canada

Parliament of Canada

The Parliament of Canada is the federal legislative branch of Canada, seated at Parliament Hill in the national capital, Ottawa. Formally, the body consists of the Canadian monarch—represented by her governor general—the Senate, and the House of Commons, each element having its own officers and...

 and the provincial legislatures. The maximum sentence is fourteen years. It reads:

51. Every one who does an act of violence in order to intimidate Parliament or the legislature of a province is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding fourteen years.

R.S., c. C-34, s. 51.

The law is one of only a handful of criminal offences, such as treason

Treason

In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...

 and piracy

Piracy

Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence at sea. The term can include acts committed on land, in the air, or in other major bodies of water or on a shore. It does not normally include crimes committed against persons traveling on the same vessel as the perpetrator...

, that are automatically heard by the Federal Court of Canada

Federal Court of Canada

The Federal Court of Canada was a national court of Canada that heard some types of disputes arising under the central government's legislative jurisdiction...

 rather than the Provincial court

Provincial Court

The Provincial and Territorial Courts in Canada are local trial "inferior" or "lower" courts of limited jurisdiction established in each of the provinces and territories of Canada. These courts typically hear criminal, civil , family, traffic, and bylaw cases...

s. It is a very rare crime. One of the only individuals to be charged with the crime in recent decades was Charles Yacoub

Charles Yacoub

Charles Yacoub is a Lebanese-Canadian who hijacked a Greyhound bus and drove it to Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada in 1989. The eight hour hostage taking resulted in no casualties, but was a notable incident of domestic terrorism in Canada.-Life:...

who hijacked a Greyhound bus and had it driven onto Parliament Hill in 1989. In his trial Yacoub was later found not guilty of the particular charge.