civil rights
Mission responding to a class-action lawsuit over controversial bylaw
Shane Woodford, CKNW
Will it be fight or fold? One way or another the city of Mission will respond today to a class action lawsuit filed by two residents over a controverial bylaw.
One of the plaintiff's Stacey Gowanlock says he is bracing for a long legal battle even though the city has already admitted they are wrong.
"They haven't broke but they have bent quite a bit here, you know, there has been a moratorium on the entire inspection team and the bylaw and how it operates since January. The city has come out here and apologized to some homeowners, the mayor himself has sent letters out apologizing to some people." Read more »
B.C. Court of Appeal rules against use of a drug-detecting dog at an RCMP road-safety check
By Charlie Smith, Georgia StraightB.C.'s highest court has ruled that the RCMP violated a man's charter right when it used a drug-detecting dog at a road-safety checkpoint.
As a result, Sebastien Payette's conviction for marijuana trafficking was set aside on September 3 by three B.C. Court of Appeal justices.
Payette was busted on March 30, 2006 near Midway, B.C., and was convicted in Provincial Court in June 2009.
According to the B.C. Court of Appeal ruling, the RCMP believed there was "reasonable suspicion" because Payette was driving a newer-model Volvo owned by a third party.
Women prisoners make love, guards leer
By: Shawn Syms, Xtra NewsAccording to RCMP policy — specifically section 19.3.5.4.2 — "limitations of space and guard personnel will exist in some locations, necessitating opposite-gender monitoring of prisoners, but, where possible and practical, reasonable effort should be made to ensure that prisoner modesty is preserved." But four RCMP officers (and three civilian staff members) at a Kamloops, BC, police station apparently thought it was okay to watch female prisoners having sex in a holding cell on Aug 18.
Failed drug war tactics won't curb human smugglers
The StarPhoenixWhile Canadians justifiably have been preoccupied with a system that allowed 490 Sri Lankan Tamils to end up on West Coast after each paying human smugglers tens of thousands of dollars, the truly dark side of this odious industry came to light in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas.
The bullet-riddled bodies of 72 migrants from Central and South America were found there last week, victims of human traffickers who disposed of their suddenly inconvenient human contraband as they might flush a bag of dope rather than get caught.
Liberty in Canada? Don't count on it
By KAREN SELICK, FreelanceWidespread ridicule from abroad has apparently caused the Iranian government to back down on outlawing certain hairstyles for men -ponytails, for instance.
Nevertheless, Iranians have been subject to grooming and dress codes for decades. This summer, Iranian police have been arresting women for such heinous offences as wearing too much lipstick or sporting sun tans. Barber shops have been ordered by police not to pluck men's eyebrows.
Do the people of Iran enjoy liberty? Most Canadians, upon hearing of these bizarre rules, would respond with a resounding "No!" Such regimentation, enforced by law, spells full-fledged authoritarianism to us -the very antithesis of liberty.
Man says theme park censored Bob Marley shirt
By: ANDY BLATCHFORD, The Canadian PressMONTREAL - A man plans to file a human-rights complaint against an amusement park after security guards told him to cover up his Bob Marley T-shirt or leave the premises.
But Montreal's La Ronde insists it didn't have a problem with the shirt's portrait of the late reggae legend — just the cluster of green, marijuana-shaped leaves that surround it.
Brunaud Moise alleges they targeted him because he's black.
He says security staff singled him out because they associated a black man wearing a Marley shirt with something criminal.
Libby Davies: An open letter to the foreign affairs minister on Marc Emery's solitary confinement
Today (June 9), MP Libby Davies (Vancouver East) sent the following letter to Minister of Foreign Affairs Lawrence Cannon on the issue of the solitary confinement of Marc Emery.June 8, 2010
The Honourable Lawrence Cannon
Minister of Foreign Affairs
418 N Centre Block
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
Dear Minister Cannon,
I write to ask for your immediate intervention into the seemingly harsh treatment of a Canadian citizen currently serving a sentence at the SeaTac Federal Detention Centre in Seattle, Washington.
Pot Suit Brought To Bring Insight
By. Kelowna Daily CourierPio says he wants police in B.C. to better understand medical marijuana
Don Pio is authorized to smoke marijuana, and he wants every sheriff and police officer in B.C. to leave him alone.
Six months after his arrest for carrying pot into the Kelowna Law Courts, the 35-year-old Kelowna man is suing the provincial sheriffs service and the RCMP. He claims authorities humiliated him and made him suffer by depriving him of his medicine.
Pio is allowed to light up to control his nausea, and he wants people in uniform to stop harassing him, he said.
Minimum sentences prove unsuccessful
By Greg Vandermeulen, Altona Red River Valley EchoThe dark side of mandatory minimum sentences was revealed in provincial court last week.
Long trumpeted as the fix-all for the justice system, the Conservatives and other proponents loudly proclaimed the glory of mandatory minimums.
The idea was that judges are flawed, tied to precedent and too inclined to be merciful. Some types of offenses are so terrible they must have minimums attached.
Killing or hurting someone with a firearm was one of those categories that most of us couldn't imagine why we wouldn't have a mandatory minimum.
Turns out we should have left that decision to the judges.
Lawyer of the Week: Isabel J. Schurman
Isabel Schurman, a lawyer with Schurman Longo Grenier and vice-chair of the Canadian Council of Criminal Defence Lawyers, was last week honoured by l’Association des Avocats de la Défense de Montréal, an organization representing 425 defence lawyers, for more than 25 years of contributions to the defence bar and the advancement of criminal law in Canada.
What is the importance of the defence bar in Canada and why do you feel so strongly about it?
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