Canada is the same...criminals are protected even during illegal activity. I am not a lawyer, but I am in the private security field, my understanding is (in Canada at least and common sense really) that you can only use the level of force required to stop you from being harmed, i.e. your stuff does not count. My opinion is that if you had to punch a robber in the head to make him drop your stuff and run, you should be OK. You can only use deadly force in response to deadly force; if he has a gun or a knife, you can shoot him. You have to be able to prove that your life was threatened. In my line of work I have to be careful...if a 160 pound crack head attacked me, I would have to show restraint because the judge would look at me and ask if me, at 230, was really in any danger from the crackhead...thus you want them to be armed. I have a friend who planned to combat a robber with a bat...after "disabling" the thief, he planned to take a knife from his kitchen and cut his outer forarms a little, then put the knife in the robbers hands...I told him I thought it sounded to orchestrated and complicated in a real event, but he says that is his plan.