Civil Liberties Update

The BCCLA applauds the Supreme Court of Canada decision in B.C. Transit v. Canadian Federation of Students. The case was a constitutional challenge to the advertising policies of Translink and BC Transit which allowed for commercial advertising but not political advertising on government-controlled public transit vehicles. Chris Sanderson, lawyer for the BCCLA: “This decision is significant in at least two respects. First, it clearly establishes that the government cannot shirk its Charter obligations by conferring powers on another entity. Second, the judgement contains a ringing endorsement of a long held BCCLA position that it is not the business of government to approve or disapprove of what Canadians say unless the government can demonstrate that to do so is justifiable in a free and democratic society, something the government was unable to show in this case.”

“We Are Not Amused” Becomes Vancouver Bylaw Standard for Punishing Free Speech

The City of Vancouver passed a large package of new by-laws arguing that the new laws are “necessary” to facilitate the Olympic Games. The by-laws carve out extensive public zones in which the City can dictate massive security screenings and draconian curtailment of free expression. In a sorry effort to mask the rest of the by-laws' failings, Council deleted one blatantly unconstitutional provision which would have allowed the removal of signs on city streets that “promote an idea.” The fact that this provision made it through to Council’s rushed hearing on the matter shows how little care went into reading and thinking through the whole thing. Council rammed through the package of proposals essentially unchanged from what its bureaucrats had spent months concocting.

Robert Holmes, President of the BCCLA: “With Queen Victoria, behavior at tea parties was regulated by whether the monarch was “amused” by what went on. Vancouver City Council has passed a by-law saying that anyone who causes a disturbance that affects the enjoyment of an Olympic event commits an offence. When the crowd booed the hapless judging of the skating competition in Salt Lake City in 2002 that saw the Russian team wrongly given gold when the Canadians deserved it, they were voicing freely their opinions. Under Vancouver’s new bylaw, at VANOC’s behest, the police will be expected to arrest anyone who does likewise. That is simply wrong. We deserve better from our elected officials.”

Braidwood Taser Inquiry

Commissioner Thomas Braidwood, Q.C., a retired justice of the B.C. appeal court, released his groundbreaking and comprehensive report on the use of tasers in British Columbia, calling on the provincial government to substantially restrict the use of tasers. The central finding of the report is that government should authorize policing agencies to continue to use tasers, but the threshold for use should be significantly revised from “active resistance” to the much higher standard of “causing bodily harm.” The BCCLA made submissions to the Commission, calling for a moratorium on the use of tasers pending the results of rigorous, independent studies about the health risks of tasers.

Commissioner Braidwood bluntly states in his report that by failing to set uniform taser training, use and reporting standards for police forces, the provincial government has abdicated its responsibility to protect the safety of its citizens. Commissioner Braidwood also states that notwithstanding the inadequacy of medical research conducted to date, it can be concluded that tasers do have the capacity to cause death in some circumstances.

After the release of the report, B.C. Solicitor General Kash Heed said he was ordering the adoption of all the recommendations of the Braidwood commission, and expected all B.C. police forces to follow, including the RCMP, which polices communities that are home to 70 per cent of the province's residents. The RCMP is now forced to choose between following the directive issued by Mr. Heed, or flouting the findings and recommendations of an independent provincial inquiry.

The Braidwood inquiry was called after the death of Robert Dziekanski, a Polish immigrant who was tasered five times by RCMP officers at Vancouver International Airport on Oct. 13, 2007. The report on the use of tasers is the first phase of the inquiry. The second phase of the inquiry which is reviewing the facts and circumstances of Mr. Dziekanski’s has not yet been completed.

City Agrees With BCCLA on Noise Maker

EasyPark, the parking company owned by the City of Vancouver, proposed introducing noise making devices at City-owned parking garages to “deter vagrants.” The BCCLA wrote to caution the City on the human rights implications of these devices.

The BCCLA presented several concerns regarding use of the Mosquito to Council through a letter from President Robert Holmes, and in person through intern Cameron Funnell. Our questions related to the effect of the devices on infants and those with hearing aids. We also expressed concerns related to compliance of the devices with City noise bylaws and about the effect on future regulation of the devices if the City was an early adopter of using noise to move “undesirable” populations along.

The City of Vancouver listened carefully to the BCCLA’s and other community groups’ concerns and agreed to reject a proposal to install “Mosquito” noise making devices in city-owned parking lots. City Council voted to strike a $147,000 line item in the 2009 parking lot capital budget allocated to purchasing “noise maker(s) to deter vagrants from congregating in stairwells.”

UBC Responds to BCCLA Concerns

In the wake of UBC forbidding students from posting signs and posters on dorm buildings or in dorm windows “visible from the Thunderbird Winter Sports Centre” and VANOC urging cities to prohibit political leafleting or signs during the Olympic torch run, the BCCLA has come to the troubling conclusion that free speech is not welcome at the Olympics.

Canada, B.C. and Vancouver said in our bid documents that we would honour our constitutional commitment to free speech, but they forgot to mention this right was reserved for Olympic sponsors alone,” said Robert Holmes, President of the BCCLA. “It’s time for a sober second look at these anti-free speech activities, and if necessary seek review of them by our Courts.”

UBC has responded to concerns raised by the BCCLA that free speech will not be welcome in student dorms during the Olympics, promising that student free speech rights will be protected during the Games.

BCCLA Demands Inquiry Into the Removal of Benamar Benatta And His Detention in the United States

To mark today’s three-year anniversary of Benamar Benatta’s return to Canada after almost five years of detention in the United States, the BCCLA is issuing a letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper calling for a public investigation into the Canadian government’s conduct in delivering Mr. Benatta to American officials on the evening of September 12, 2001, a week after he had come to the Canadian border seeking asylum. Carmen Cheung, Counsel for the BCCLA: “The government’s accounts to date for how Mr. Benatta was removed to the United States without the benefit of a hearing on the merits of his refugee claim or any other process or procedure are inconsistent and non-credible, and appear to be little more than ex-post-facto justifications for an illegal removal of an innocent man claiming refuge in Canada.”

Event Volunteers Needed

Supreme Court of Canada Rules That Transit Authorities Must Allow Political Advertising

“We Are Not Amused” Becomes Vancouver Bylaw Standard for Punishing Free Speech

Braidwood Taser Inquiry

City Agrees With BCCLA on Noise Maker

UBC Responds to BCCLA Concerns

BCCLA Demands Inquiry Into the Removal of Benamar Benatta And His Detention in the United States