As we covered earlier, criminal offences in Canada are divided into three categories:

• summary conviction offences, which are relatively minor offences (such as common assault or causing a disturbance),
• indictable offences, which are more serious offences (such as break and enter or murder), and
• hybrid offences, which are offences that the Crown can decide to treat as summary conviction offences or as indictable offences, depending on their severity (such as sexual assault)