Confront A Home Intruder -- But With Restraint...?

"Officers arrived on scene and learned that the resident of the apartment had woke up [sic] to find another male [intruder] inside his apartment."

"There was an altercation inside the apartment and the intruder received serious life-threatening injuries as a result of that altercation."

Kawartha Lakes Police Service

 

"You should be able to protect your family when someone's going in there to harm your family and your kids."

"You should use all resources you possibly can to protect your family."

"So this criminal that's wanted by the police breaks into this guy's house. This guy gives him a beating, and this guy gets charged, and the other guy gets charged, but -- something is broken." 

"I know if someone breaks into my house or someone else's, you're going to fight for your life. This guy has a weapon … you're going to use any force you can to protect your family." 

Ontario Premier Doug Ford

Police are facing criticism for charges laid against a man in Lindsay, Ont., after an alleged home intruder was injured in an altercation in his apartment. (Mike Crawley/CBC)

 

"What would be unreasonable is as you've got them subdued on the ground, already under control, continuously hitting them, or hurting them, or stabbing them."

"It's unclear if these two individuals were known to each other, that could play into it as well."

"There's a lot that we don't know." 

Former police officer Dan Jones, currently  chair, Justice Studies program, NorQuest College, Edmonton 

On Monday, Kawartha Lakes police responded to a home invasion call in Lindsay, Ontario. A man named as Michael Kyle Breen, 41, had entered the apartment of 44-year-old Jeremy David McDonald. Mr. McDonald confronted an armed interloper in his home. He reacted as anyone in such circumstances would; arming himself to meet his obligations to protect his family from someone who entered the sanctity of the family home during the night with obviously ill intentions. 

 

The Police Service found the intruder severely injured by the homeowner who had evidently used a knife to disarm and put the intention of the intruder out of contention. On Thursday when the police publicly identified both the homeowner and the intruder, court documents reflect the homeowner as having been charged with aggravated assault and assault with a weapon; that he "did endanger the life" of the man identified as the armed nighttime intruder.

 

A report of an altercation between two males in the early hours of Monday morning had drawn the police response. On their arrival police quickly assessed the intruder's physical condition as medically serious leading them to have the injured man transported to a local hospital, from where he was later airlifted to a hospital in Toronto. The homeowner was charged with aggravated assault, assault with a weapon, then released to appear on September 25 at the Ontario court of justice in Lindsay, Ontario.

 

As it happened, the intruder was a wanted man well before his illegal, armed entry to the homeowner's apartment. He was wanted for previously committed unrelated offences. For his latest offence, he had been charged with possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, break-and-enter and theft, as well as mischief under $5,000 and failing to comply with probation. 

 

Ontario Premier Doug Ford speaks to the media during a funding announcement in Hamilton, Ont., Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Carlos Osorio

 

When news media picked up the story it became an instant sensation; remarks condemning the police action in charging the homeowner roundly criticized, including statements from the Ontario premier judging the situation absurd. The response from the chief of the Kawartha Lakes police was to note "the negative commentary about the officers and their actions is unjust and inaccurate". The public, however, and other authorities and journalists in reacting to the situation, were aghast at charging the homeowner, with zero sympathy for the injured -- however severely -- intruder. 

"Under Canadian law, individuals have the right to defend themselves and their property."

"However, it is important to understand that these rights are not unlimited in Canada. The law requires that any defensive action be proportionate to the threat faced."

"This means that while homeowners do have the right to protect themselves and their property, the use of force must be reasonable given the circumstances."

 Kawartha Lakes Police Chief Kirk Robertson 

A man is facing assault charges after allegedly inflicting life-threatening injuries on an intruder at his home in Lindsay, Ont. The case has triggered questions about the limits of self-defence in Canadian law. Still from video, CBC News