The legal sense of intention.

1. Is in one sense more narrow than in ordinary language, in that it excludes "motive" more sharply.

2. Is in another sense more broad than in ordinary language, in that in the law one may be said to intend outcomes one did not act to bring about.


The line in (2).

In England (Hyam): One intends, inter alia, those consequences that one foresees as "highly probable."

In Canada (Buzzanga and Durocher): One intends, inter alia, those consequences that one foresees as "substantially certain."


Buzzanga and Durocher, per McIntyre J.

"I conclude, therefore, that the appellants 'wilfully' (intentionally) promoted hatred against the French Canadian community of Essex County only if:

(a) their conscious purpose in distributing the document was to promote hatred against that group, or

(b) they foresaw that the promotion of hatred against that group was certain or morally certain to result from the distribution of the pamphlet, but distributed it as a means of achieving their purpose of obtaining the French-language high school."

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