Is it Yours

[Reverend]

This has been taken from the Winnipeg Sun Paper.

 

 

 

 

When Robin Chatterjee was pulled over for having a missing licence plate, police claimed they smelled marijuana in his car.

 

They searched the car and found $29,000 in cash and a few items commonly used for growing marijuana. The police recognized they did not have evidence to charge him with any crime. Instead, they confiscated the items, along with the $29,000.

 

Shockingly, this happened in Canada. The Supreme Court of Canada recently ruled such forfeitures do not violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

 

If the police just "think" property in your possession may have come from criminal activity, it can be legally confiscated.

 

Ontario's Civil Remedies Act "does not require an allegation or proof that a particular person committed a particular crime," the court wrote. This is an extraordinary grant of police power and the potential for abuse or misuse is extreme.

 

Many readers have no problem with the notion of police powers being exercised against criminals. But Chatterjee was never even charged with a crime, let alone convicted of one. This did not matter to the court, which wrote the trial judge "could have accepted wholeheartedly (Chatterjee's) claim that he was entirely innocent of any involvement with marijuana cultivation, yet still ordered forfeiture."

 

That is a remarkable statement. What happened to proof beyond a reasonable doubt? What ever happened to the principle that "the punishment must fit the crime?"

 

Chatterjee may have been a suspicious character. After all, it is rather unusual to travel with tools typically used for growing marijuana plus $29,000 in cash. But it is not illegal.

 

Receipt, please

 

Imagine the police pull your car over for a broken tail light or come to your house because you are waking your neighbours. Will you need to provide a receipt to justify any unusual or expensive possessions the police notice that you have?

 

And if you can't, should you lose your things, even with no criminal conviction?

 

I think it violates the principle of proof beyond a reasonable doubt to confiscate alleged proceeds of crime without any criminal charge. In a free and democratic society, we should not have to explain ourselves to the police any time we are pulled over.

 

In my view, if the police do not have grounds to arrest you, you should be free to go, and to take your property without having to prove it is lawfully yours.

 

The unfortunate trend, however, is our society's interest in personal privacy continues to degrade, coming close to the point of no return.

 

Since 2004, six other provinces have joined Ontario by enacting civil forfeiture laws. B.C., has confiscated more than $5 million since its law came into effect in 2006. B.C.'s Civil Forfeiture Office (BCCFO) is funded by proceeds of confiscated goods, and the office became entirely self-funded 18 months ahead of schedule.

 

This should be nothing to be proud of, but the BCCFO gleefully boasts it is "an exercise in efficiency" and it's "business model" is premised on "ease of access for law enforcement personnel."

 

It scares the hell out of me that a government forfeiture office sees itself as a business. Confiscating goods and money without sufficient proof of criminal conduct should not be undertaken so cavalierly.

 

U.S.-style abuses

 

Such programs are likely, if not certain, to suffer from the exact same sorts of abuses that have occurred in the U.S., where it is not uncommon to hear of forfeited goods going missing or forfeited cars winding up in the hands of law enforcement personnel.

 

The state took Chatterjee's money and other items because the cops smelled marijuana in his car. I am left to wonder what they would have confiscated had Chatterjee actually had drugs on him. Maybe his kidney?

[jimbojones5678]

That's shockingly bad, how the hell can they justify that!!!

 

Jimbo

[luciddreaming]

One step away from taking someone's brain coz it has drugs in it!

Fucking disgusting Canada!

[lightning]

Every country on earth has ratified at least one of the UN human rights accords which state that "A person should not be arbitrarily deprived of their property" which is what this is in fact.

Theses confiscation laws breach human rights Anybody facing this type of theft should lodge a complaint with the Human rights commission or the High Court, If challenged properly it should be found wanting and struck off.

Edited June 10, 2009 by lightning

[thedarkestone]

In SA you can be put into gaol if you associate with certain people and all on secret evidence. Your lawyer may not even be told what you did wrong. Crazy laws are in place in this country too - even if our leaders don't wear military uniforms.

[lightning]

Yes darkstone, all our rights are slowly but surely being removed, common law is a thing of the past, as the Judge at our county court hearing said "We are under the dictates of the parliament"

We will see what the HCA thinks of that comment.

 

The only true cure for tyranny is rebel-union(I mean revolution)

 

Guy Fawkes only had one obstacle to his plan succeeding, No remotely controlled delivery system... a problem modern technology has overcome

 

Something we maybe need to point out to these "rights thieves"

 

I really can't wait for the war crimes trials to begin, that will wipe the smiles off their faces.

[luciddreaming]

Yep, rights mean.... wait for it.....

FUCK.

ALL.

 

Unless you stand up for them they are just ink on a piece of paper.

 

Oh yeah and that SA law with bikies is FUCKED. This is why I like Overland, he refuses to put in BS laws which go against all common sense and logic.

We aren't gettin' tasers in Vic either!

Edited June 10, 2009 by luciddreaming

[lightning]

We aren't gettin' tasers in Vic either!

 

Yeah they are just going to keep SHOOTING people instead!!!!

 

Actually I think Overland is probably the best commissioner since Mick Miller in the late 80s who thought 5 plants/person was valid in a home for personal and should be left alone,

 

He got pushed out of course....

 

Hope Simon does not go the same way

[BaronS]

Yeah, the cops should have beaten him up, charged and arrested him, then confiscated his possessions.

[luciddreaming]

Yeah they are just going to keep SHOOTING people instead!!!!

Ai... that's what I thought at first too. But when you think about it. It's better to teach cops to never use their guns unless the attacker has a gun. Otherwise you get 75 year old ladies getting tasered for speeding. Coz the cops are like "yeh, it's not gonna kill em, and then I won't have to bother with any physical exercise it would take to restrain them by hand"