I don’t mean to be paternalistic, chauvinistic or any
other "istic" you can think of…but I am sincerely troubled by
the state of legal affairs in our neighbor to the north.
Bad concepts and ideas can span national boundaries, these
days, faster than a hoof and mouth virus.
That’s why we should all be keeping an eye on proposed new
legislation that would give Canadian police officers freedom from civil
liability when breaking the law to enforce it.
The concept is not entirely an alien one in this country. If
a police car races at 80 miles an hour through a residential neighborhood
while in hot pursuit, you can’t pull over the officer and give him a
ticket. But if that police car runs over a 10-year-old girl on her bike and
kills her, shouldn’t the city bear some responsibility for the family’s
loss?
Under the Canadian legislation, we’re not merely
discussing traffic cases. This bill would allow officers to engage in
"reasonable and proportional" criminal acts while infiltrating or
investigating outlaw activity.
To their credit, even some police detectives and their
superiors have gone on record opposing the plan as currently presented.
Criminal defense lawyers and civil libertarians in Canada are reported to be
overwhelmingly opposed to the legislation.
The House of Commons is considering the police crime bill to
counteract Canada’s Supreme Court, which has already ruled, with rare
exceptions, against allowing police to break the law while trying to catch
law breakers.
The lack of logic and the shortsightedness displayed by the
Canadian "Dirty Harry" law makers is astounding. Those of us south
of the border had always believed our northern cousins to be under the rule
of law. But when those charged with enforcing the law are allowed to
brazenly break it at will, there is no law.
For now, the proposal has been tabled. We can only hope it
will die a quick death in committee and that the lawmaker who proposed it
will be quarantined in Ontario for life.
If his "asinine" ideas ever receive an entry visa,
America might well be facing a "police state" epidemic with no
known cure.