NDP will support Conservative bill allowing greater use of Citizen's Arrest
By: Mike Blanchfield, The Canadian Press
OTTAWA - The NDP says it will support Conservative government legislation to make citizen's arrests easier.
New Democrat MP Olivia Chow said Saturday she supports a decision by the Tories to introduce a bill to amend the Criminal Code.
The prime minister's office confirmed on Saturday that a bill would be tabled soon after Parliament resumes Jan. 31.
"I expect that the government will be introducing legislation as quickly as possible once the new session starts, in the next couple of weeks," Prime Minister Stephen Harper's spokesman Dimitri Soudas told The Canadian Press Saturday.
"We also hope that the opposition parties will support the government legislation."
Despite the controversy that sometimes accompanies their law-and-order agenda, the Tories were hopeful of Liberal and NDP support because each party has already tabled private members' bills on the issue.
"The roadmap is in front of them. My private members bill, it's in the House of Commons. All they have to do is say yes. If they want to copy it, that's fine by me," Chow said in an interview Saturday.
"Let's make sure that hard working store owners won't get punished if they try to defend their stores because that's totally unfair."
Harper told two Toronto businessmen, shopkeeper David Chen and investment banker Ricky Chan, in a private meeting Friday that the new bill would be introduced in Parliament in three to four weeks.
Chen made national headlines last fall when he was acquitted of assault and forcible confinement after catching and tying up a shoplifter in Toronto.
Catching a thief in the act is a requirement of the law when making such a citizen's arrest. Chen captured the shoplifter one hour after he stole plants from his store. However, a judge called the one-hour issue a "red herring," saying the thief had gone back for more loot.
The huge public outcry over Chen's case - especially in vote-rich Toronto - caught the attention of the government and opposition parties.
Soudas stressed that the government was not playing politics with the issue. He said Harper was tracking the case closely but could say nothing publicly until it wound its way through the courts.
"The prime minister was following this very closely from the get-go," said Soudas.
"On issues such as this one, politics should always be left aside."
In separate interviews Saturday, Chen and Chan said their private meeting with Harper the previous evening left them feeling upbeat.
"People steal lots of things and we can't do anything," Chen said.
"We hope the law, (they) can change it so we can have more power to protect the store owners . . . I know how much money we lose there."
Chan, who attended the meeting to help with translation, added that Harper seemed genuinely interested in Chen's plight.
"In about three to four weeks, there will be a law tabled at parliament," said Chan.
Last year, Chow - Chen's MP - introduced a private bill to change the law to allow more time for such an arrest to be made. Liberal MP Joe Volpe tabled a similar bill, using different language.
"The Conservative government, hopefully this time around with the expressed support of the Liberals and the NDP, hopefully this thing will go forward," said Chan, who formed a victims' rights action committee a year and a half ago to aid Chen after his arrest.
"If you've got the governing party presenting a bill, you've got a better chance of getting it done."
In November, Harper instructed the Justice Department to look at changing the Criminal Code to ensure that there is no repeat of what happened to Chen.
Chan said Friday's meeting was called on short notice, while Harper was in the Toronto area.
Chen, Chan and Harper spoke for about 10 minutes around the 6 p.m. supper hour, said Chan.
"It was very nice. The prime minister took a personal interest on this matter. He was very genuine and interested in David's current situation," said Chan.
Though the meeting was private, and the media was not advised that it was taking place, Chan said, "we were told it was ok to discuss the meeting . . . by the prime ministers' office."
Justice Minister Rob Nicholson's office would not discuss the prospect of new legislation being tabled when the House of Commons resumes, deferring all questions to Harper's office.
A man was convicted and served 30 days in jail for stealing plants from Chen's store.
Anthony Bennett admitted in court that he returned to the store an hour after that theft to steal more.
After Chen's acquittal, a Crown prosecutor said the decision would not set a precedent, and that it could continue to prosecute such charges against shopkeepers on a case-by-case basis.
Now can we can arrest war criminals in Canada, including Canadian ones?
While I certainly sympathize with the store owner and don't blame him for taking action against someone he knew to be a troublemaker, were the laws that bad originally that they had to be changed?
WTF?!..Seriously.
So now we open the door to vigilantes,eh?
What in the FUCK is the NDP thinking?!!
This is Olivia having to deal with some of her constituents. I do not expect the change to have large ramifications in how things actually work.
and that's not all they're willing to support it looks like:
NDP Not After A Fight, Says Layton : He wants all parties to get along.
http://www.theprovince.com/news/after+fight+says+Layton//4151848/story.html
"...Layton said if Harper is willing to deal with NDP's issues, there doesn't have to be an election."
that oughta inspire troops for the fray eh? Looks like the fix is in. He'll vote for the budget in exchange for a few ndp scraps for optics sake, and give the country yet another round of Harpo because he's not up for a fight. Here we go again. The left hand washes the right and both wash the face...
WilderMore: please do not copy and paste entire articles from other news sites. It's copyright violation and against babble policy. A short excerpt and a link will do just fine.
The Liberals would insist on more gigantic tax cuts for profitable corporations as the middle ground for their support while a phony war rages on in Afghanistan. At least with the fourth party and effective opposition NDP pushing and prodding them we might win a few crumbs from the bastards.
From now on I think we can dismiss all comments or analysis attempts by you. If you don't understand the most basic positioning attempts you don't understand much.
I have no real problem with this. If you have ever worked independent retail (outside of a mall) you would understand where there is a need to better define the rules. At the moment they are a mismash of mixed legal precedents, urban myth and things people think they understand from TV
Yeah bargaining with the government is how our obsolete FPTP democracy is supposed to work when Canadians don't trust either old line party enough to hand them dictatorial powers by phony majority. Christ knows the Liberals won't do anything other than capitulate, acquiesce, cow-tow and grovel to the Reform-Tory Government agenda without any strings attached whatsoever.
Shrewd, Jack. Play their FPTP shell games. Neither old line party wants an election. They haven't done anything worth voting for, and they know it.
After the absurd charges against that shop keeper in Toronto - it was obvious that the existing laws on citizens arrests were ridiculous and in need of reform. If the Tories want to run with an NDP idea - what's not to like. I suspect this particular bill will pass unanimously - its a motherhood issue.
what exactly do you object to in Olivia Chow's bill?
EI? Afghanistan? They don't want a highly skilled work force. That's not being very friendly toward Bay St and foreign creditors. I'm afraid we'll have to elect a lot more NDPers to Ottawa if we want a debt-free and competitive economy not driven by supplying cheap fossil fuels to the imperial master nation.
Meanwhile the "North Atlantic" Treaty Org continues waging phony war. And the NDP began insisting that no more troops be sent to Afghanistan by December 2005 and not spring of 2006.
Let's hope it's actually something of substance and not a knee-jerk reaction.
lol It's not Harper's agenda at all - he's simply a marionette controlled by Bay Street and US interests. He hasn't had an original thought in that empty melon of his since entering politics and probably way before that. Same goes for Iggy the American.
Apparently Unionist backs the NDP's plan to cure electoral dysfunction in the Northern Puerto Rico. Welcome aboard, Unionist. One Canadian one vote now!
It's
sadly predicibleamazing how party policy gets bent out of shape to accomodate parochial concerns in the Toronto area.What specific party policy do you think is being bent out of shape by supporting a bill that will clarify the laws around citizens' arrests?
Refer me to a list of "specific party policies" and I'll let you know.
I'm also looking for Olivia Chow's photo op with Anthony Bennett, talking about her new private member's bill aimed at enhancing society's approach to dealing with poverty, racism, substance dependency, and prevention of social crime. I've already got the video and photos of her with Chen, thanks. Can you help?
This NDP old fool is responding to the party's federal appeal to "Help Defeat Stephen Harper in the coming election."
Rather than encouraging infighting while touting a superior moral position - otherworldly, actually - I'll help to put up a defence against the Conservative machine's propaganda, which seems to cause capitulation, even among the "solidarity forever" folk.
Question...Will this mean the self righteous can now legally arrest some kid smoking a joint in a park?
Sounds like an expansion of the police state and sounds eerily reminiscent of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers...
'Scuse me while I puke.
Never saw the flick, myself. But I tend to base my decisions on reality, not an imagined reality. We'll see what citizens are allowed to do...besides, obviously, detaining someone repeatedly stealing from them.
Harper wants to fill all those new prisons he wants to build, and getting citizens to help with arrests - including of victimless crimes such as smoking pot - is one way to get there.
Have not seen the bill yet- rather busy. Will decide when I see it what I think of it. I trust that all those commenting have actually read it -- right?
The wider issue of cooperation with the Cons is exactly what I suggested the NDP do last year.
Last year the NDP said they would vote against the budget before they even saw it.
This month Ignatieff is throwing that in their face.
They need to read the thing, they need to try to get concessions and they need to sound like they are trying to work with the government before they vote.
Then if there were something to vote for they can point to it but it better be substantial. I am not optimistic about that. Then if there is not they need to vote it down.
Rather than critique the NDP for positions it has not yet taken call NDP MPs and tell them what your bottom line is.
Mine is that I want them to consider carefully, avoid public statements about what they will do, sound cooperative and then vote the budget down.They need to give opportunity to the government on the issues we want and let the government refuse rather than come out saying they can't support a document that they have not seen
But they can't very well announce that can they?
I expect this budget will be impossible to support but how can we say more?
As for Chow's bill (I wanted to respond to the other comments first), this needs also to have a analysis based on exactly what it says. Same witht eh government version. When I have time I will look to form my opinion at least. Unfortunately I am not optimistic but am withholding judgment for now.
Sean, how do you expect such a rational position to hold water hereabouts?
Don't freak out or anything, but you don't actually need a change in law for this. The proposed changes seem to be oriented around allowing a greater window of opportunity for a citizen to make an arrest (as opposed to the existing laws which restrict citizens to making an arrest only if they catch the criminal in the act).
Will these new powers give ordinary citizens the power to act on 'probable cause' ?...Will vigilante groups be given the same authority as police?
Would citizens be cleared of being charged with assault when arresting people?
What next,bounty hunters?...Guardian Angel chapters?...Professional snitchers?
This stinks...This is the next step to an absolute police state.
And all this with a crime rate that's been dropping every year for 20 years.
This bill can be spinned any which way possible and it's still BULLSHIT.
No.
Nope.
If they use reasonable force, the same as now.
The Cons changes haven't been made public yet, but if they're like Chow's proposed changes, citizens' arrests will work just like they always did, except that there'll be a more realistic window of opportunity to make the arrest. Currently, if you catch someone in the act of stealing your bike, you can make a citizen's arrest. If the change passes, you can also make a citizen's arrest an hour later when you see the thief riding around on your bike.
Not really such a horrifying dystopia now, is it??