Section 500 — Criminal Code: Contents of appearance notice

An appearance notice shall set out the name, date of birth and contact information of the accused; set out the substance of the offence that the accused is alleged to have committed; require the accused to attend court at a time and place to be stated in the notice and to attend afterwards as required by the court; and indicate if the accused is required to appear at a judicial referral hearing under section 523.1 for a failure under section 496. An appearance notice shall set out a summary of subsections 145(3) and (6), section 512.2 and subsection 524(4) and the possible consequences of a failure to appear at a judicial referral hearing under section 523.1. An appearance notice may require the accused to appear at the time and place stated in it for the purposes of the Identification of Criminals Act , if the accused is alleged to have committed an offence referred to in paragraph 2(1)(c) of that Act. An accused shall be requested to sign in duplicate their appearance notice and, whether or not they comply with that request, one of the duplicates shall be given to the accused. If the accused fails or refuses to sign, the lack of their signature does not invalidate the appearance notice.