Section 550 — Criminal Code: Recognizance of witness

Where an accused is ordered to stand trial, the justice who held the preliminary inquiry may require any witness whose evidence is, in his opinion, material to enter into a recognizance to give evidence at the trial of the accused and to comply with such reasonable conditions prescribed in the recognizance as the justice considers desirable for securing the attendance of the witness to give evidence at the trial of the accused. A recognizance entered into under this section may be set out at the end of a deposition or be separate from it. A justice may, for any reason satisfactory to him, require any witness entering into a recognizance pursuant to this section to produce one or more sureties in such amount as he may direct; or to deposit with him a sum of money sufficient in his opinion to ensure that the witness will appear and give evidence. Where a witness does not comply with subsection (1) or (3) when required to do so by a justice, he may be committed by the justice, by warrant in Form 24, to a prison in the territorial division where the trial is to be held, there to be kept until he does what is required of him or until the trial is concluded. Where a witness has been committed to prison pursuant to subsection (4), the court before which the witness appears or a justice having jurisdiction in the territorial division where the prison is situated may, by order in Form 39, discharge the witness from custody when the trial is concluded.