High Court Narrows Scope of Allowable Police Sting Evidence
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August 01, 2014 – Vol. 19 No. 31 High court narrows scope of allowable police sting evidence Jul 25 2014 TORONTO - An Ontario judge has agreed to hear a Charter of Rights challenge brought by telecom- munication giants Telus and Rog- ers after police requested them to release cellphone information about 40,000 to 50,000 customers as part of an investigation in the Toronto area. Page 3 Jul 25 2014 A new supercomputer lab in the criminology department at Simon Fraser University will analyze crime data in ways never seen be- fore in Canada. Page 4 Jul 28 2014 OTTAWA - A newly disclosed Fi- nance Department memo warns Jul 31 2014 Newfoundland man of drowning his three- that the high level of anonymity OTTAWA - Confessions extracted year-old twin daughters can be risky. associated with Bitcoin transac- through so-called Mr. Big police sting The justices ruled that Nelson Hart’s tions may make the virtual cur- operations tend to produce unreli- confession during a sting operation more rency an attractive payment able confessions, are open to abuses than a decade ago cannot be used against him method for criminals. and must be regulated more carefully should he face another trial. It will now be up Page 5 in order to be admissible in court, to the Crown to determine whether Hart can be retried. Jul 29 2014 the Supreme Court of Canada ruled Thursday. Hart was initially convicted of first-de- WINNIPEG - The retired judge The decision by the country’s highest gree murder in 2002 in the drowning deaths who probed the death of Phoenix court calls into question the convictions of of his daughter, Krista and Karen. At trial, Sinclair says child death reviews Canadians behind bars across the country. court heard that Hart showed undercover of- ought to be made public. In a majority decision, the court ruled ficers, posing as members of the mafia, how Page 5 that stings like the one used to convict a he drowned the girls by shoving them into the Jul 30 2014 TORONTO - Chief Bill Blair will not stay on as head of the Toron- to Police beyond next spring, ac- cording to a statement published by the board Wednesday. Page 7 waters of Gander Lake, Newfoundland. Peladeau hit her head on the door frame. But the conviction was overturned in The committee called that measure “useless 2007 by the province’s appeal court by a 2-1 THURSDAY and excessive” and said it “constituted an margin. The ruling questioned the reliability JULY 24, 2014 abuse of authority.” of his confession. Sforza, Mezzacapa and Lo Dico were The Supreme Court ruled that Hart’s Jul 24 2014 also admonished for not checking on the oc- Charter rights may have been violated and MONCTON, N.B. - The two RCMP of- cupants of a truck involved in an accident that Canada’s legal system does not adequate- ficers in New Brunswick who were during the chase needed help. ly protect the rights of people who are subject wounded in shootings last month that However, the committee considers that to Mr. Big sting operations. also killed three of their colleagues Sforza had reason to draw his weapon in a “I have concluded that the April 1 confes- are expressing gratitude for the pub- first attempt to arrest Peladeau because she sion must also be excluded,’’ Justice Michael lic’s support. allegedly threatened him with a syringe. Moldaver wrote on behalf of the majority. The RCMP have released statements A citation against a fourth agent, Fabio “As such, it is doubtful whether any ad- from constables Eric Dubois and Darlene Nicola Cavaliere, was withdrawn “for reasons missible evidence remains upon which a jury, Goguen, who were shot on June 4 while they of health and humanitarian consideration.” properly instructed and acting reasonably, were pursuing an armed suspect in Moncton. The officers will be sentenced at a later date. could convict,’’ he added. “However, the fi- Dubois says he appreciates the comfort- Judge Martin Vauclair of the Court of nal decision on how to proceed rests with the ing notes he received from across Canada and Quebec acquitted officers Sforza and Cava- Crown.’’ the United States while he was recuperating. liere of assault charges in May 2008. The Mr. Big investigative technique in- Goguen says she continues to recover Vauclair concluded that the police force volves undercover police officers who recruit from her injuries and is grateful for the pub- used against Ms. Peladeau was vigorous, but a suspect to a ficticious criminal organization lic’s encouragement and prayers. deemed it necessary and not excessive. while posing as gangsters. The aim is to ob- Both were treated and released from hos- Jul 24 2014 tain a confession to a crime. pital after the shootings. But there are “significant problems’’ with OTTAWA - Ottawa Police have col- such stings, the court said. Jul 24 2014 lected more than 60,000 traffic stop “To be sure, Mr. Big operations can be- MONTREAL - The 580 police officers entries a year after the launch of a come abusive, and they can produce confes- of Laval have joined their Service de program to promote bias free policing. sions that are unreliable and prejudicial,’’ said police de la Ville de Montréal breth- A new report on the Race Based Data the ruling. ren and are now wearing non-regula- Collection, released Thursday to the Ottawa The court said police and lawmakers tion issue pants to protest proposed Police Services Board, counts the program a must figure out a better way to extract solid changes to their pension plan. success. confessions from suspects in criminal cases. Starting Wednesday, police officers are Insp. Pat Flanagan, who is responsible for “We must seek a legal framework that wearing jeans, combat pants and anything but the project, said the collection means Ottawa protects accused persons, and the justice their regulation trousers on the job. police “can continue its commitment to bias system as a whole, against these dangers,’’ The pants issue it meant to remind the free policing and have meaningful dialogue it said. provincial government and Laval mayor about racial profiling concerns.” “Mr. Big operations are a creative and Marc Demers that the officers are not happy Since June 2013, officers at traffic stops sometimes useful law enforcement technique, with the proposed Bill 3, which would unilat- have recorded their perception of the driver’s but the courts must carefully police their erally alter their work conditions by changing race. They also collect age and gender along boundaries lest they stray from being useful the amounts the officers will have to contrib- with stop details like the date and location, strategies into ploys that allow the state to ute to their pension plan. reason for stop and its outcome. More than 81 manipulate and destroy the lives of individu- In a statement, the officers object to hav- per cent of all recorded traffic stops have all als who are presumed to be innocent.’’ ing to pay for the mistakes made by elected eight fields filled out, the report said. officials that caused the crisis in the budget. The two-year project came out of an While Montreal police have often taken agreement between the Ontario Human the jeans-and-cargo-pants route in the past, Rights Commission and the Ottawa Police this is the first time Laval has joined in. Services Board. (Montreal Gazette) “It’s about building a project that will produce accurate, meaningful and measura- ISSN 1704-3913 Jul 24 2014 ble data, and more importantly, have the con- Copyright 2014 Quebec’s police ethics committee has fidence of our members and the communities Blue Line Magazine Inc. & The Canadian Press we serve,” said Flanagan in a news release. Permission to reprint may be obtained in advance from sanctioned three Montreal police of- The report calls it the largest study of its Access Copyright ficers in connection to their behaviour Phone 1-800-893-5777 [email protected] in a 2005 incident involving Anne-Ma- kind in Canada, and the data will be made pub- lic in 2015 when the two-year project is over. Published weekly by Blue Line Magazine, Inc. as an executive rie Peladeau, sister of media-mogul- (Ottawa Citizen) news briefing service to Canada’s top level law enforcement personnel. turned-politician Pierre Karl Peladeau. Nearly nine years after the fact, the tribu- Most information supplied in this publication is from news- Jul 24 2014 wire services. As such Blue Line Magazine does not ac- nal deemed the behavior of officers Roberto cept responsibility for the accuracy of articles as supplied. Sforza, Mike Mezzacappa and Lo Dico “de- CALGARY - A group of convicted of- rogatory” in reference to the violent arrest of fenders are serving their time while All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, serving the community as part of a stored in an electronic database or transmitted in any form or by Peladeau and Eric Kennedy. The pair was ap- any means, electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise, with- prehended after allegedly stealing cigarettes partnership between the Calgary Po- out the prior permission of the publishers. One Year Subscriptions lice Service, Alberta Corrections and are $10500 (GST Included). Paid subscribers may make up to four and initiating a police chase. (4) copies of this publication for distribution within their organization. The arrest was caught on camera by a the Kiwanis Club of Calgary. TVA camera. TVA is owned by Quebecor, The inmates are repairing old bicycles Group Publisher: Morley S. Lymburner while developing skills which will help with PUBLISHER: Kathryn M.