The Ottawa Citizen is reporting that "The B.C. government announced it intends to dramatically expand civil forfeiture. Calling it the most significant revision of the Civil Forfeiture Act since its introduction in 2006, Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth announced three proposed changes, which he said were aimed at organized crime and fentanyl trafficking. Under the changes, the onus would be shifted to a defendant to prove that an asset is not an instrument or proceed of unlawful activity. Shifting the burden of proof to a defendant is obviously terrible,' said Micheal Vonn of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association." Exactly. We've gone from bad to worse.
Think about where this is coming from. This is coming from the British Columbia government. The ones referred to as the wild west of corruption in the New York Times. When the RCMP task force on organized crime found proof of money laundering in BC Casinos, the government disbanded that police task force. When the Gang Task force confirmed the Hells Angels involvement in drug trafficking and stolen vehicles in Kelowna, the government disbanded the Outlaw Motorcycle Gang Unit. Now with a change in government we have simply gone from bad to worse.
Mike Farnworth is good but this new plan is not. Seizing the proceeds of crime does nothing to stop or restrict the sale of fentanyl, it simply lets the government profit from it. The government then benefits form the proceeds of crime without any attempt to reduce or restrict crime.
Mike Farnworth should have brought back the OMGU. The fact that he hasn't makes this new plan suspect and takes us from bad to worse. The Charter of Rights is there for a reason. It protects citizens and voters form unnecessary searches and seizure. The term innocent until proven guilty is a fundamental building block in any democratic nation. Once you remove that foundation, the democratic nation falls and turns into something else.
Interestingly enough down south asset forfeiture is on the ropes after a recent Supreme Court decision and decades of abuse by lazy, greedy cops.You don't have any of those up there, right?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/20/us/politics/civil-asset-forfeiture-supreme-court.html
You guys are so fucked, I seriously doubt the Supreme Court of Canada will rule against the system they are there to protect, as opposed to being a "check and balance". That darned Constitution written by a bunch of misogynistic slave owning white men turns out to have surprising staying power.
"misogynistic slave owning white men" How on earth can you take such a sacred document and defile it so indiscriminately? All people are equal. That is the root of the law. I am a merry plow boy so I am. I've always hated slavery so I have:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VR12Q4kcdqQ
Sorry, forgot to use the :sarc: thing, this is how the progressives like to characterize the framers of the Constitution.
ReplyDeleteAll people are not equal. They are to be considered equal before the law and in the matter of their civil and property rights. This is a far cry from them actually being equal, we have equality of opportunity, but equality of result is an impossibility and against nature's (which is to say G-d's) design.
All people are equal. That is the root of the law.
DeleteYou guys can’t actually believe that all people are treated equally in the eyes of the law. Obviously you haven’t spent much time in the courtroom
ReplyDeleteActually yes I do and yes I have. Equality is what a free republic is all about. In BC one could argue that a rich man gets better representation than a poor man, but aside from that, all people are indeed equal in the eyes of the law.
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