Canadian Supreme Court To Cops: You Can't Arrest Someone Just Because You Think Something Illegal Might Happen In The Future

Canadian Supreme Court To Cops: You Can't Arrest Someone Just Because You Think Something Illegal Might Happen In The Future

5 years ago
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https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20191007/15075443140/canadian-supreme-court-to-cops-you-cant-arrest-someone-just-because-you-think-something-illegal-might-happen-future.shtml

Free speech protections have been given a bit of a boost in Canada. Simultaneously, the leash on the country's law enforcement has been tightened a little. That's how these things go. Personal rights and government power are often zero-sum. This case -- dealing with the arrest of a counter-protester -- ensures Canadian law enforcement can't just go around arresting people for the "crime" of not committing any crimes. (via a site that wrote about it but somehow found it impossible to include a link to the freely-available ruling, so here's a link to the Supreme Court's site)

This is important. And the ruling [PDF] rolls back consecutive lower court decisions that said Canadian cops can arrest people if they think some lawlessness might be imminent. In this case, Randy Fleming was arrested by law enforcement as he approached an indigenous occupation of land owned by the Canadian government. Fleming was carrying a Canadian flag, presumably to make the point the land belonged to the Canadian government, rather than the representational occupiers opposed to that view.

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