B.C. Supreme Court Ruling Favors Privacy Over Police

For years,people in Canada have watched courts south of the border throwing out cases over technicalities. Canadian courts have traditionally sided with the police in cases where the line has seemingly been crossed. Drug cases have been foremost in the violation of rights and in police evidence being accepted even where these rights have been trampled. This is changing and the latest ruling is an example of the new trumping of police power for the upholding of civil rights. In a unanimous decision,the three members found that police had violated a man's right to privacy by extending a search for alcohol into a search for anything they could find. Mark Thomas Dreyer appealed his conviction for possession for the purpose of trafficking of cocaine on the grounds the search violated his right to privacy. The whole case was over 3 grams of coke and how that's trafficking is a mystery to me. That's not even a good night's partying. The police found an open bottle of beer and used that as an excuse to tear the vehicle apart. Nothing strange in that. The cops have been doing that for as long as I can remember and that's a long time. No more! In a ruling that must have the whole White Rock RCMP detachment out on a bender,the court said the search was beyond the scope of it's intended parameters and was a violation of the man's right to an expectation of privacy. This was unanimous and therefore virtually beyond the scope of an appeal for the crown. Put this decision together with the recent one on SWAT style drug raids and you get the impression that the court has finally decided to side with citizens rights over police power. It's been a long time coming. In another story,a panhandler who became infamous for the robbery of an old age pensioner in a church lobby was given a conditional sentence(no jail time)in the case. The case garnered attention when the video of the crime was shown on TV. The man had a few violations after the initial incident but then was sent to a recovery house run by the same church in which he committed his crime. He's made a complete recovery and is now a 12 stepper and working at the home. I thought it was a nice story until I read it and the priest is quoted as saying that harm reduction is stealing all the attention and getting all the funding and that it's a crying shame. What's a shame is the way the abstinence crowd is running all over town saying they're getting shorted in the funding and attention departments. They were very vocal at the recent meetings on drug reform and complained bitterly that they weren't on the podium. I didn't hear them complain when harm reduction was in it's infancy and couldn't buy a one inch piece in a paper. These people ruled the treatment industry for 60 years. Now they seem more concerned about their funding issues than they are about the welfare of the people they purport to want to help. This isn't restricted to the abstinence crowd either. A lot of people seem too comfortable traveling around the world speaking on all sides of this issue. This is a job that has to be done and anyone doing it is trying to make the world a better place with a lot less pain. My only hope is that we don't get so comfortable with our advocacy that we become like the televangelists that care more for the bottom line than for anyone's soul. In another matter,long time marijuana advocate David Malmo-Levine was arrested last week in another DEA inspired round-up of local pot advocates. A regular at drug reform meetings and the proprietor of the drug war museum on Hastings Street in Vancouver,he was arrested with several others. Marc Emery was represented by a friend who asked the audience to continue to advocate for an end to Emery's extradition troubles. Mr.Emery is evidently still fighting his case in spite of press stories to the contrary.