What is the current state of the law on the offence of attempted murder?

The leading case on attempted murder is R v. Ancio, 1984 CanLII 69 (SCC), [1984] 1 S.C.R. 225. That authority makes it clear that attempted murder is an offence that is separate and apart from the offence of murder. As Mr. Justice McIntyre said, at p. 240: A great deal of the confusion surrounding the nature of the intent required to found a conviction for attempted murder may well stem from an assumption that murder and attempted murder are related offences which must share the same mental elements. A brief review of the historical development of the law relating to the two offences demonstrates that the crime of attempt developed as a separate and distinct offence from the offence of murder.