There are four definitions of robbery under section 343 of the Criminal Code:

Every one commits robbery who:

(a) steals, and for the purpose of extorting whatever is stolen or to prevent or overcome resistance to the stealing, uses violence or threats of violence to a person or property: [Put simply, a person who steals while, at the same time, using violence or threat of violence is committing robbery.]

(b) steals from any person and, at the time he or she steals or immediately before or immediately thereafter, wounds, beats, strikes or uses any personal violence to that person. [This robbery definition is different from (a) because there is a direct physical assault against the other person. Additionally, (b) requires that the assault is specifically directed at the person whose property is being stolen].

(c) Assaults any person with intent to steal from him or her. [In this case, a person can be charged with robbery if they assault somebody for the purposes of stealing from them but was unsuccessful in stealing the item].

(d) Steals from any person while armed with an offensive weapon or imitation thereof. [Under Canadian law, there is no separate offence for robbery with firearm or robbery with a weapon [also known as “armed robbery”]. Instead, under this section, it is still considered robbery when someone is armed with a weapon during the course of stealing. An “offensive weapon” can include dangerous weapons like a firearm or a knife. An “imitation weapon” includes items that look like dangerous weapons, like a toy gun]