|
|
| The Names | Growing Pains | Reader Comments |
| Links | Actions | Back to Index |
These two articles raise concerns about legalized misuse of police authority, in the one case wiretap surveillance and in the other case the apprehension of juveniles "for their own good" without charges being laid.
Thursday, December 14, 2000
By SUE BAILEY-- The Canadian Press
OTTAWA (CP) -- Nine people acquitted of running a cocaine ring in Victoria will be retried after Canada's highest court ruled wiretap evidence can be used against them.
In a 9-0 judgment Thursday, the Supreme Court of Canada clarified the test judges must use in approving a vital investigative tool.
Under the Criminal Code, wiretapping is loosely defined as justifiable where "other investigative procedures are unlikely to succeed."
Writing for the unanimous court, Judge Louis LeBel offered more guidance.
"Wiretapping is highly intrusive and a judge should protect citizens against unwanted fishing expeditions by the state," he said.Police applying for such authority must show in documents they submit to the authorizing judge that "there is no other reasonable alternative method of investigation" under the circumstances.
In this case, "the police had more need for wiretapping given that they were trying to move up the chain and catch the higher-ups in the operation," LeBel said.
Thursday's ruling overturns the acquittals of Neil Grandmaison and eight associates.
It upholds an appeal court judgment ordering a new trial, but doesn't support that court's assertion that wiretaps should be allowed if shown to be the most efficient way to proceed. That would give law enforcers too much power, LeBel suggested.
"Using the efficiency standard," he wrote, "wiretapping would always be available to the police and would replace a standard of necessity with one of opportunity at the discretion of (police).
"Such a result would rightly send a chill down the spine of every freedom-loving Canadian."
Victoria city police and the RCMP began investigating in January 1995 after being tipped that Grandmaison, an unemployed labourer, seemed to enjoy a posh lifestyle.
An eight-month probe that included electronic surveillance of private conversations and other communications led to the arrests. Search warrants at several homes yielded 4.3 kilograms of cocaine, a cocaine press, cash and several weapons.
The accused were cleared after a trial judge threw out the wiretap evidence, ruling the police officer who attained the required authority to conduct such surveillance wasn't credible.
At trial, the wiretapping evidence was challenged because the officer, in a 130-page document used to get a judge's approval, mixed up informants vital to the case.
The officer testified that he discovered the error before the trial but didn't tell anyone, and forgot to correct it.
A provincial court judge found the officer's explanation tainted his credibility. He extended this doubt to the entire document seeking wiretap approval and ruled the authorization should not have been given.
The B.C. Court of Appeal overturned that result in June 1998.
Thursday's ruling ends a long and costly fight to vindicate the investigators, said Staff Sgt. Patrick Convey, head of the Vancouver Island Drug Section for the RCMP.
"It's beyond frustration. It was very catastrophic for law enforcement, period.
"The credibility of one of our officers was severely attacked, and credibility for a police officer in the witness box is everything."
Minor mistakes made by Const. Andre Rosset, author of the flawed document and still an RCMP officer, did not merit throwing out the wiretap authorization, ruled the high court.
To avoid similar mishaps, LeBel said future documents attesting to the credibility of informants in wiretap applications should be written by police sources in direct contact with them.
"Hundreds of thousands of dollars" have been invested in the Grandmaison case and police are ready to go back to court, Convey said.
Wiretaps cover virtually every form of communication, from phone and residential bugs to e-mail, and are used in almost all major drug probes, he said.
In case you didn't know what a residential bug is: a microphone the size of a pin head could be placed in your home by law enforcement without your knowledge. Get the picture?? Yes, they could do it with a camera too...
Thursday, December 21, 2000
By JOHN COTTER-- The Canadian Press
EDMONTON (CP) -- Alberta's controversial law to fight child prostitution was upheld in a court decision released Thursday.
The law, which allows authorities to detain child prostitutes without charges, was declared unconstitutional by family court Judge Karen Jordan last summer.
She ruled it did not allow teens the right to answer the allegations or the right to a judicial appeal.
However, Justice John Rooke of Court of Queen's Bench quashed that with his ruling.
"Judge Jordan did not have the jurisdiction to strike down certain parts of the (Protection of Children Involved in Prostitution (Act)," Rooke wrote.
"Jordan was in error in holding that the procedures employed by the Act to confine children in need of protection, although they did infringe on the liberty interests of the children, were contrary to the principles of fundamental justice."
Rooke's decision is a victory for the Alberta government, which has steadfastly defended a law it enacted in February 1999 to help get child prostitutes off the streets.
The idea is to protect a child prostitute from a pimp by putting such kids in a secure environment where they can receive counselling and other support to return to a normal life.
Despite Jordan's ruling, police have continued to apprehend child prostitutes to safe houses for up to three days.
However, the province also amended the law last month to address some of Jordan's concerns.
"This ruling has upheld the integrity and constitutionality of the original Act," said Justice Minister David Hancock. "The amendments made a good law even better."
Those amendments state that detained children must be informed in writing about the reasons for their confinement and to their right to legal representation.
The children will be detained for five days when first picked up off the street, up from three days. After that, authorities can then apply to extend the confinement for two additional periods of 21 days each.
Most of the amendments are to be proclaimed this spring.
A group than runs a safe house for child prostitutes in Calgary applauded Thursday's judgment.
"We always felt it was a good law and have always been concerned about incarcerating kids," said Terry Steward, spokesman for Woods Homes. "We have had some reasonable success with the law."
Some legal experts were more cautious.
While no one can argue against the basic idea of protecting children, the law does give police sweeping powers, said Chris Levy, a law professor at the University of Calgary.
"Police can pick up and detain child prostitutes without any check or assessment of whether the kids are indeed child prostitutes," he said. "It gives the police carte blanche."
Such laws must be monitored closely to ensure they are applied fairly, he said.
Liberal justice critic Gary Dickson said even though the court decision vindicates the government, the process prompted the Justice Department to improve the law.
"They built in some of the procedural safeguards that some of us had been looking for and wanted to see," he said.
Since the Act was proclaimed, 454 apprehensions have been made involving 222 girls and boys -- including 91 kids who were apprehended more than once. Most were aged 15 and 16, but there were several 12 year-olds.
Other provinces have introduced similar laws or have expressed interest in Alberta's legislation, said Children's Services Minister Iris Evans.
"It appears that the legislation that Ontario and other provinces are considering is exactly the legislation that we have in place," she said. "I think that is something Alberta can celebrate."
If passed, Ontario's proposed law introduced earlier this week would allow police to remove children who are being sexually exploited in massage parlours, X-rated entertainment facilities and on the Internet.
Harry Van Harten, the Calgary lawyer who represented two 17-year old girls who challenged the Alberta law in Sept. 1999, said he doubts his clients will appeal Thursday's ruling.
"I'm disappointed in the decision but it doesn't matter because the legislation has been changed," he said. "There is not going to be an appeal."
Reprinted under the Fair Use doctrine of international copyright law.
Send your comments and stories of police brutality to: ruitsdawtah@Hotmail.com
This page created December 23,2000
