Sunday, February 27, 2011

Case dismissed!

Source: Daniella Ciuffa, Winnipeg Sun
Good Day Readers:
We seem to recall a time about 5-years or so when the Winnipeg Police Service under Chief Jack Ewatski came under increasing scrutiny. A couple cases were thrown out of court back-to-back. One as we remember involved the City's finest entering the famous (In more ways than one!), historic McLaren Hotel on Main Street on a Saturday night looking for any individuals with wants and warrants - a safe bet. Apparently, the officers proceeded to check everyone's identification.
The McLaren hotel - "A friendly place to meet people in Winnipeg!"

The judge threw the case out on the basis the police cannot simply stop and detain everyone to verify their identification without probable cause which makes perfect sense. Otherwise the Boys in Blue could randomly visit restaurants, shopping malls, football stadiums - wherever - on the presumption there's got to be at least one want and warrant here.

Next came the case of a lady who was obviously dealing drugs (cocaine). The officers involved made at least four or five mistakes one of which included not reading the individual their rights in a timely way. Looking back we now wish we'd saved the Winnipeg Free Press write-up. The judge's comments were priceless. To paraphrase. "You made 5-mistakes" then proceeded to list each one. At least a couple were violations under Canada's Charter of Rights and freedoms. Case dismissed!

Then there was the latest one involving an allegation against the police of illegally obtaining a Search Warrant, exercising it and perjury.

Sincerely/Clare L. Pieuk

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