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| June Update 2009 | |||
| Canada Day Brings Two More Reasons to Support the BCCLA! | |||
| BCCLA Condemns Unlawful Canada Day Searches | BCCLA Says Police “Body-Worn” Video Cameras Not About Police Accountability | ||
BC Transit has announced a policy not to allow alcohol on transit vehicles on Canada Day, stating that service will be “monitored” and customers will be asked to demonstrate compliance. Those who refuse to be searched will apparently not be allowed to board transit vehicles. The news release announcing this policy included a comment from the Victoria police chief applauding this policy. This is an attempt to evade what the police complaints process has already found unlawful.
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Would you like your privacy invasion super-sized? Not only is the Victoria Police Department implementing a policy of unlawful mandatory searches for alcohol during Canada Day celebrations, they have announced they will be invading your privacy with warrantless recordings as well. The Victoria Police have announced the launch of a “pilot project” of police using “body-worn” video cameras attached to sunglasses and bicycle helmets. The devices, which are for both video and audio recording, are being touted by the police as not only surveillance of citizens, but as a tool for police accountability. Rob Holmes, BCCLA President said, “‘Surprise! You’re on candid camera!’ is not a lawful policing practice. That’s why the law requires a warrant from a judge before intercepting private communications. This Victoria Police plan for Canada Day may be just as unlawful as the dragnet alcohol searches. Little information has been made available to assess this proposed experiment. The idea that it is being done as a police accountability tool sounds ridiculous. Officers control when the devices are off and when they are on. No one is naive enough to imagine that police officers will voluntarily record themselves committing an improper act.” |
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| Braidwood Inquiry: Assurances Sought From RCMP Confirming Disclosure of All Relevant Materials |
BCCLA Condemns CBC Ban on Political Ads | ||
The BCCLA is a participant at the Braidwood inquiry which was thrown into an uproar after a Department of Justice lawyer, representing the RCMP, made a late disclosure of an email exchange between two senior RCMP officers just as closing submissions were about to begin.
Inquiry Commissioner Thomas Braidwood said that he was “appalled” that the RCMP had not disclosed the information months ago, and ordered that the inquiry be postponed so that the contents of the email could be investigated. He stated that further evidentiary hearings may be required. |
The BCCLA condemned the CBC for its refusal to run political advertisements outside election periods. The policy came to light when the public broadcaster refused to air federal Conservative party advertisements, arguing that it has a “strict policy” against political advertisements outside election periods. “The fact that this is being done by a publicly owned broadcasting network makes this interference with freedom of expression all the more offensive,” said Robert Holmes, President of the BCCLA, who demanded that the CBC end the policy immediately. “The CBC’s policy of allowing laundry detergent, department store sale, automobile, health product and other commercials, but not political commercials amounts to an unconstitutional interference with the rights and liberties of all Canadians. Political expression does not occur just during election campaigns. In democratic societies, it is ongoing.” |
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| BCCLA Calls on VPD to Release Surveillance Video in Hubbard Shooting Case | BCCLA Demands Repatriation of Abousfian Abdelrazik |
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Two months of effort by three different data recovery companies to recover an allegedly deleted cell phone video of a police shooting has ended in a frustratingly inconclusive result. The data recovery companies have not been able to say, one way or another, whether the video ever existed, or recover any part of the video. On March 20, 2009, Michael Hubbard was shot and killed by police after being mistaken for a petty thief. Adam Smolcic, a bystander who says he filmed the incident on his cell phone, claims that shortly thereafter a VPD officer confiscated his phone and deleted the video he had just taken.
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“The Federal Court has recognized that Mr. Abdelrazik, like all Canadian citizens, has a constitutional right to return to Canada,” said Robert Holmes, President of the BCCLA. “The Court has properly found that Canada denying Mr. Abdelrazik the travel documents he needs is unconstitutional. In another case, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that while government needed the tools to fight terrorism: 'On the other hand stands the need to ensure that those legal tools do not undermine values that are fundamental to our democratic society — liberty, the rule of law, and the principles of fundamental justice [. . .] it would be a Pyrrhic victory if terrorism were defeated at the cost of sacrificing our commitment to those values.' Those are wise words. |
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| Calling All Civil Liberties Champions... | |||
BCCLA members are the heart of our Association and make our work possible. If you are not already a member, please sign up today to champion civil liberties and human rights in Canada. You can join the BCCLA or renew your membership online or contact Sarah directly at sarah@bccla.org or 604-630-9750. Thank you! |
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| Civil Liberties Update is a summary of some of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association's recent work. The Association publishes a newsletter, The Democratic Commitment, an annual report and posts its positions, submissions, legal arguments and news releases at www.bccla.org. | |||
To unsubscribe from the Update please contact us by e-mail. |
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Rob Holmes, BCCLA President said, “The spectacle of Transit employees patting down bus riders and pawing through their purses, bags, and satchels is disturbing. People are entitled to respect for their persons and effects. The police and BC Transit are showing scorn for the law and for the civil liberties of all persons, most particularly those who choose public transit on a public holiday. Instead of providing for enough police to walk the beat and do their job if unlawful disturbances arise, the authorities are wasting time and energy on unlawful searches.”
Grace Pastine, Litigation Director: “The issues raised by the email are highly relevant and go to the very core of the inquiry’s mandate. The public deserves a full explanation of the email’s contents and its drafting, and significantly, why it wasn’t disclosed many months ago. The public’s confidence in the RCMP has been shaken and we need assurances that the RCMP is disclosing all relevant materials.”
“We have reached the end of our resources in attempting to recover Mr. Smolcic’s video,” said BCCLA Executive Director David Eby, noting that the next level of data recovery that involves disassembling the phone would cost thousands of dollars. “Fortunately, the public is not without an opportunity for transparency and openness. We call on the VPD to release the video of this shooting and the aftermath to the public, or at the very least to the family of Mr. Hubbard.”
