Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Latest Legal Lunacy on Search and Seizure

We last discussed some peculiar discrepancies in the law's right to perform search and seizures, here.

Now, breathtaking new developments are being made in that hotbed of progressivism, Saskatchewan.

Either marijuana should be illegal, or it shouldn't. But if it is, we just make an ass of the law with thinking like
this:
The scent of weed wafting from an open car window doesn't give an officer the right to make an arrest and search a vehicle, according to a recent decision made by the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal
[...]
The judge found Janvier's charter right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure had been violated. The scent of marijuana created a suspicion it was smoked, but didn't provide reasonable and probable grounds for an arrest or a search, the judge concluded before excluding the evidence. Janvier was declared not guilty.

The Crown appealed the verdict and the trial judge's decision was upheld.

"The smell alone can't constitute the grounds, because the smell of burnt marijuana - as opposed to raw marijuana - gives an inference that the material is gone, it's dissipated into the atmosphere. So how can you say you're in possession of something that doesn't exist?" [defense lawyer] Piche said.
Frankly, I think that horrible stench burning marijuana creates should be illegal. It's damned inconvenient. The other day I went into a public park washroom and found five boys smoking dope. The air was unbreathable. I cursed them and walked out, soon followed by two boys who jumped in their car and sped away, apparently afraid I was about to call the cops. Ahh, the naivety of youth.

2 comments:

Rob Misek said...

How many ridiculous judgments like this occur daily?

Who has the desire or time to burden the judicial system correcting their blatant errors?

Better start hiring more judges and lawyers on taxpayers money.

Dag said...

I was nervous while reading your account of confronting the kids smoking pot, knowing you were Ok and were writing about it afterward, but the fact is that in confronting pot-smoking teens one risks being shot or hacked or pummeled to death, while the kids who kill will walk, often without a day in the clink.

Yes, there are cases of outright murder in this city that have come to trial, the offender found guilty, and then he walks out of court for free for nothing.

Now, far from it for me to lose my temper, so I let my buddy William Shakespeare tell it like it should be: "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers". - Henry VI, (2), Act IV, Scene II).