Surveillance Database By-law Struck Down

The BC Court of Appeal struck down a New Westminster by-law that required second-hand stores and pawnshops to collect personal information on their customers to forward to the police. The BCCLA has been deeply concerned about the proliferation of these kinds of surveillance databases.

Royal City Jewellers & Loans Ltd. challenged the New Westminster by-law and we intervened on the appeal arguing that the by-law contravened provincial privacy legislation and was unconstitutional. The court didn't have to consider the privacy and constitutional arguments as the by-law was struck down because the municipality didn't have the authority to enact such a by-law under its governing legislation. Althought the decision is about who has the authority to do what according to statute, the court expressed a more general concern about technology-driven incursions into citizens' privacy rights. We thank Brent Olthius, our pro bono counsel in this case.

Read the decision in Royal City Jewellers & Loans Ltd. v. The City of New Westminster.

The BCCLA has gone to federal court to challenge the refusal of the federal agency responsible for ensuring RCMP accountability to review our RCMP complaint regarding the RCMP's handling of the income trust investigation. The BCCLA believes that then RCMP Commissioner Zaccardelli should not have let an NDP MP know that the RCMP was ramping up its criminal investigation. This revelation resulted in intense and wide media scrutiny that arguably affected Canadians' voting patterns. The BCCLA believes that the RCMP should stay out of political affairs but did not do so in this case.

The BCCLA believes that the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP (CPC) has let the RCMP off the hook in this case by delaying the review of our complaint.

BCCLA's press release
BCCLA's Notice of Application

The BCCLA is organizing a public forum to focus on the reform of the system for investigating police conduct when a civilian dies while in the custody of police. Linda Bush, mother of Ian Bush, a man who was shot by an RCMP officer in Houston, B.C., is scheduled to speak, as are lawyers who act for the families of men who have died.

BCCLA Board member Shirley Heafey, who is the past Chair of the Commission for Complaints Against the RCMP, is also scheduled to speak. The forum is tenatively scheduled for the morning of Monday, September 24, 2007. Attendance is free to the public.

For more information contact Jim Braunagel at the BCCLA at 604.630.9748.

The BCCLA has joined with Canadian parliamentarians, professors of international law, and civil society organizations to intervene before the United States Supreme Court on behalf of Canadian Omar Khadr and other terror detainees in challenging their detention at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Omar Khadr has been detained at Guantanamo Bay since 2002, following his capture by U.S. forces in Afghanistan when he was 15 years old.

The Supreme Court case involves legal challenges to the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which purports to strip non-U.S. citizen terrorism suspects of the right to petition civilian U.S. courts to review their detention. The BCCLA will file an amicus curiae legal brief with the Court arguing that the Military Commission process violates customary international law by restricting access to habeus corpus, the legal action through which a person can seek relief from unlawful detention, and by failing to meet the minumim standards set by customary international law rules on the treatment of aliens.

Vancouver lawyer Nick Varzeliotis is assisting the BCCLA in preparing its submissions.

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