wiretaps new illegal without judge's approval!

Thursday » July 24 » 2008

Court limits police wiretaps

B.C. ruling makes emergency surveillance illegal without judge's approval

Neal Hall
Vancouver Sun
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
CREDIT: Ian Lindsay/Vancouver Sun Files
Graham McMynn, joined by his mother Joanne and father Robert, answers questions about his state of mind at the happy end of his eight-day kidnap ordeal.
In a ruling that has national ramifications, a B.C. Supreme Court judge has struck down a section of the Criminal Code that allowed police to intercept private conversations without a judge's authorization.
The section applied to emergency situations when a person's life is in danger.
Justice Barry Davies ruled last Friday that Section 184.4 of the code is unconstitutional because it violates the "Section 8" rights of six people accused of kidnapping.
Section 8 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms covers the right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure.
Since the ruling was made by a justice of a superior court, it applies across Canada. But it will not take effect immediately.
While Davies declared the law was constitutionally invalid, he decided his ruling will not take effect for either 18 months, or 30 days after the charges in the case in question have been resolved, whichever is longer. That will give Parliament time to fix the deficiencies in the law.
In an excerpt of his ruling made public Monday, Davies said he was particularly concerned about the lack of a requirement for notice to be given to persons whose communications have been intercepted, and the lack of any requirement for police to report to the government justice officials when they have used the section.
Notice would at least provide a constitutional safeguard, he said.
He imposed a ban on details of the kidnapping case that led to the ruling.
It was identified only as the case of "Six Accused Persons," because evidence will be heard at a jury trial next fall. The judge said he wanted to "avoid any tainting of any jury pool or any prejudice to a fair trial."
Sec. 184.4 was introduced in 1993 by then-justice minister Perrin Beatty in a package of Criminal Code amendments concerning electronic wiretapping.
It allows police to intercept private communications without judicial authorization if there are "reasonable grounds that such an interception is immediately necessary to prevent an unlawful act that would cause serious harm to any person or to property."
The finding that the law breaches Canada's constitution could affect the current Vancouver trial of five men accused of kidnapping former University of B.C. student Graham McMynn, who was held for eight days in 2006 before he was rescued by police.
The police investigating that case used an emergency wiretap without a judge's authorization.
McMynn has testified in the trial that his kidnappers threatened to kill him.
Defence lawyers are expected to argue at the McMynn trial that since Sec. 184.4 is unconstitutional, emergency wiretap evidence gathered by Vancouver police should be excluded.
Police and prosecutors said Monday they were reviewing the judge's 170-page decision to determine how it will affect policing and other cases before the courts.
"We're reviewing it right now," said Const. Tim Fanning of the Vancouver police department, adding police would make no other immediate comment.
The RCMP were also reviewing the ruling, said Const. Annie Linteau.
"We're in the midst of a comprehensive review," chimed in Crown counsel Stan Lowe of the criminal justice branch, a division of the attorney-general's ministry that oversees criminal prosecutions in B.C.
"It's going to take some time to assess the ramifications of this decision, not only in the current case but in other cases," Lowe said.
The branch won't decide yet whether an appeal is warranted because it is an interim ruling that will require further argument at trial to see if the wiretap evidence can be saved under another section of the Charter, Lowe added.
Defence lawyer Simon Buck said the defence in the McMynn case plans to argue that the emergency wiretap evidence should be excluded.
He added Sec. 184.4 is a very useful tool for police and is being used more often in kidnapping cases.
"With the proliferation of kidnapping cases in B.C., we're seeing it used more often," Buck said. "We've got three cases just in our office."
The ruling by Justice Davies is available on the Internet at:
http://www.courts.gov.bc.ca/Jdb-txt/SC/08/02/2008
BCSC0212.htm

opp wiretap fun not fun for us!

Use of emergency wiretap provision questioned
OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino said he acted in the public interest when he tried to convince Mohawk protest leader Shawn Brant to remove blockades during last summer's aboriginal day of action. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press)Police have said the phone recordings were legal, citing a little-known emergency provision in the Criminal Code of "interception in exceptional circumstances."
But Rosenthal said the use of wiretapping on Brant's brother was "outrageous."
"He is well known in the community as a totally upstanding lawyer who does not get involved in any activity that even borders on the illegal," he said.
Another man whose phone was tapped, Mario Baptiste, told CBC News he met Shawn Brant behind the lines at the Oka blockade in Quebec in 1990 but was not involved in last summer's protest.
The NDP's Kormos said it is hard to believe that police didn't have time to seek judicial approval when there were warnings about the protests several days in advance.
"Judges are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week," Kormos told CBC News on Tuesday. "I think it's pretty outrageous and pretty frightening that the OPP are using these extraordinary wiretaps when they knew this action was going to be taking place."
Rosenthal also accused Fantino of threatening Gregory Brant with charges of aiding and abetting. In court, Fantino acknowledged that he called Gregory Brant, imploring him to try to intervene to get his brother to take down the blockades.
The justice critic said it was "extraordinary" that the Crown attorney was arguing in the case for a publication ban and not the defendant, which Kormos said showed the attorney general "clearly did not want this to become public information."
"The attorney general went to lengths to make sure the press, the media, the public wouldn't have access to this information, either the information about the wiretaps without judicial authorization or the context of the conversations, this very pugilistic bombast coming from Julian Fantino, that was escalating the conflict, not diffusing it," he said.
'I don't believe I am above the law'
The Mohawk protest leader said the OPP has only acknowledged wiretaps on the four numbers, but the total number of those whose lines were intercepted as a result of the investigation into the protests "could be fifty, could be five hundred," but remains unknown.
"Someone needs to be accountable, like I will be accountable," Brant said. "I'm going to take responsibility for what happened that day, and I'm going to go to jail for it and I have no problems doing that.
"I don't believe I am above the law. I believe I am going to be accountable to it."
Rosenthal said that under the emergency provision, police are not required to show evidence to justify the wiretaps, but need only make a request to the phone companies. Those whose calls are monitored never are informed afterward, he noted.
"They just say, 'Do it.' Nobody looks at it," he said. "There's never any scrutiny of it … Who tests that, ever? We're going to test that with this case."
During his testimony last year at Brant's pre-trial hearing, Fantino said he was aware the conversations with Brant were being recorded, but said he had no role in the decision to wiretap the calls.
Det.-Const. Douglas Weiss, the lead investigator in the case against Brant, also couldn't say who in the OPP authorized the wiretaps. He also testified at Brant's pre-trial hearing that he has to this date never heard them and never asked for them to be included as evidence.
The OPP only decided that they would disclose the existence of the wiretaps a week before the pre-trial hearing began, Weiss told the court.
"They were thinking of not even telling us," Rosenthal said.
Brant's trial is expected to begin in January in Napanee, Ont.

elisabeth hasselbeck needs to go NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BYE-BYE elisabeth hasselbeck.
Get going now. get off tv for goodASAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

SUPREME COURT OF CANADA news

Hydro-Québec v. Syndicat des employé-e-s de techniques professionnelles et de bureau d'Hydro-Québec, section locale 2000 (SCFP-FTQ), 2008 SCC 43



* Bastarache J. took no part in the judgment.

Note: This document is subject to editorial revision before its reproduction in final form in the Canada Supreme Court Reports.

______________________________
hydro‑québec v. scfp‑ftq

Hydro‑Québec Appellant

v.

Syndicat des employé‑e‑s de techniques professionnelles et
de bureau d’Hydro‑Québec, section locale 2000 (SCFP‑FTQ) Respondent

Indexed as: Hydro‑Québec v. Syndicat des employé‑e‑s de techniques professionnelles et de bureau d’Hydro‑Québec, section locale 2000 (SCFP‑FTQ)

Neutral citation: 2008 SCC 43.

File No.: 31395.

2008: January 22; 2008: July 17.

Present: McLachlin C.J. and Bastarache,* Binnie, LeBel, Deschamps, Fish, Abella, Charron and Rothstein JJ.

on appeal from the court of appeal for quebec

Labour law — Duty to accommodate — Undue hardship —Employee frequently absent for extended periods because of illness — Employee dismissed for her absenteeism and inability to work on regular and reasonable basis — Interaction between employer’s duty to accommodate sick employee and employee’s duty to do work — Time relevant to determination of whether employer has fulfilled duty to accommodate — Interpretation and application of undue hardship standard.











------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Canada (Privacy Commissioner) v. Blood Tribe Department of Health, 2008 SCC 44

Privacy — Investigations of complaints — Powers of Privacy Commissioner — Production of documents — Solicitor‑client privilege — Dismissed employee filing complaint with Commissioner and seeking access to her personal employment information — Employer claiming solicitor‑client privilege over some documents — Whether Commissioner can compel production of privileged documents — Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, S.C. 2000, c. 5, s. 12.
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SUPREME COURT OF CANADA


Citation: New Brunswick (Human Rights Commission) v. Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan Inc., 2008 SCC 45

Date: 20080718
Docket: 31652

Between:
New Brunswick (Human Rights Commission)
Appellant
and
Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan Inc.
Respondent
‑ and ‑
Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission, and
Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission
Interveners

Coram: McLachlin C.J. and Binnie, LeBel, Deschamps, Abella, Charron and Rothstein JJ.


Reasons for Judgment:
(paras. 1 to 43)

Partially Concurring Reasons:
(paras. 44 to 90)


Abella J. (Binnie, LeBel and Rothstein JJ. concurring)


McLachlin C.J. (Deschamps and Charron JJ. concurring)
Note: This document is subject to editorial revision before its reproduction in final form in the Canada Supreme Court Reports.
______________________________
n.b. (h.r.c.) v. potash

New Brunswick (Human Rights Commission) Appellant

v.

Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan Inc. Respondent

and

Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission, and
Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission Interveners

Indexed as: New Brunswick (Human Rights Commission) v. Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan Inc.

Neutral citation: 2008 SCC 45.

File No.: 31652.

2008: February 19; 2008: July 18.

Present: McLachlin C.J. and Binnie, LeBel, Deschamps, Abella, Charron and Rothstein JJ.

on appeal from the court of appeal for new brunswick

Human rights — Discriminatory practices — Discrimination on basis of age — Mandatory retirement — Pension plans — Employee filing complaint alleging age discrimination after being asked to retire at 65 pursuant to mandatory retirement policy contained in pension plan — Provincial human rights legislation expressly declaring that age discrimination provisions not applicable if employer’s decision to terminate employment taken pursuant to “bona fide pension plan” — Criteria required to show that pension plan is “bona fide pension plan” — Human Rights Code, R.S.N.B. 1973, c. H‑11, s. 3(6)(a).

Pensions — Pension plans — Bona fide pension plans — Criteria required to show that pension plan is “bona fide pension plan” — Human Rights Act, R.S.N.B. 1973, c. H‑11, s. 3(6)(a).

number 88

Canadian soldier James Hayward Arnal killed by roadside bomb in Afghanistan
1 day ago
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — A Canadian soldier was killed by a roadside explosion, the military announced on a violent day that also saw a suicide bomber blow himself up just outside the gate of the main Canadian base in Kandahar.
The suicide attack outside Kandahar Airfield occurred just moments before the Canadian Forces held a solemn news conference there to announce the death of Cpl. James Hayward Arnal.
Maj. Michael Wright, the commanding officer of the Second Battalion of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, said Cpl. Arnal couldn't wait to get back to Afghanistan for a second tour of duty.
"He had already served with distinction in Kandahar province from August 2006 to February 2007," said Maj. Wright. "During that tour he was involved in a massive firefight with the Taliban and participated in September 2006's Operation Medusa.
"As soon as he returned to Canada he was looking for ways to go back, and this past February he got his wish."
Maj. Wright said Cpl. Arnal brought experience and passion to his job.
"His loss is a blow to his fellow soldiers in Bravo Company and to the entire Battle Group.
"Our condolences go out to his family in Winnipeg and we now make a solemn vow to ensure his final voyage home is conducted

Canada's national crime rate fell in 2007 for the third straight year

Less crime could hurt 'law-and-order' Tories at the polls, experts say

OTTAWA — Canada's national crime rate fell in 2007 for the third straight year, with declines in everything from homicides and gun crimes to minor property offences, says a new report.
And some say numbers released Thursday by Statistics Canada could strip some political ammunition away from the Conservative government, which has styled itself as the party that's toughest on crime.
"If crime rates continue to come down, then eventually the level of fear will not rise, but it might actually taper off or stabilize, in which case the usefulness of it as a ballot question for the Conservatives will weaken over time," said Bruce Anderson, president of polling firm Harris-Decima.
Statistics Canada says the seven per cent drop in the national crime rate was led by falling counterfeiting offences and theft under $5,000, including fewer break-ins and stolen cars.
Robbery committed with a firearm declined 12 per cent from the previous year, hitting its lowest point in three decades.
The numbers fly in the face of popular media and political messaging, which portrays crime across Canada as rising in both volume and ferocity.

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The Tories do not have politics message for the next election!

:.)

Angus Reid Poll: Canadians Question Whether Omar Khadr Will Get Fair Trial in Guantanamo

Respondents split on whether Khadr should be repatriated to Canada; women, young adults most sympathetic to his plight.
07.10.08 Thursday

The government of Canada do not help citizens who are in person anyway!!! in international setting

Do i need to list all of the cases? :.)