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Canada: Police Do Not Have Power To Wiretap Without Warrant

Posted by Soulskill on from the unless-it's-on-opponents-of-the-maple-leafs dept.

omega6 sends this excerpt from The Star: "The Supreme Court of Canada struck down Friday warrantless wiretap powers that police have in cases of emergency. ... Ruling in a 2006 British Columbia kidnapping case, the country’s top court said a 1993 provision of the Criminal Code is unconstitutional because there is no accountability or oversight for the warrantless searches, either to the person wiretapped or in reports to Parliament. The unanimous ruling was written by rookie judges Michael Moldaver and Andromache Karakatsanis. The case revolves around police intercepting the calls of the family of Peter Li, the kidnap victim."

4 of 133 comments (clear)

  1. Yay Canada by drwho · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yes, I am ready to move there, if they'll take me. NS or PEI I'd like. Now, le tme in! I am smart and have a degree from a good college!

    1. Re:Yay Canada by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      We don't want you. We want you to stay home and get involved and sort out your country. That would have a greater beneficial effect, here and there.

      Put it this way: it's nice to be good neighbours with good neighbours.

      Saying "fuck it, I'm moving" is the same stripe of "I've got mine, jack" that's at the root of much of what's gone wrong down there. By moving, you making it worse, twice.

  2. Re:more and more by flyingfsck · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Well, the underground railroad has always run *from* the USA *to* Canada. The US may have a big statue of Libertas in the New York harbour, but the US has never really been the land of the free. That title belongs to Canada.

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  3. A step in the right direction by bobwrit · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Hopefully, Canada will begin to take a slightly more critical look to the whole concept of 'Emergency Powers'. I mean, here in the US(as an example), we've entertained the concept that if we're in a war, or the president has been given war powers, that he has the right to suspend the population's rights. Albeit, this isn't new(we suspended a lot of rights during WWII, at least. see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_American_internment ), but we just need to get rid of this idea. Just because we're in war, doesn't mean that we're not human.

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