in our court syste! The pressure on the police to play the game and not praect the public has become immense, -— Patrick B. Brode of the Mackenzie Institute in the booklet Streets of Fear. WHAT MR, Brode was say- ing was that the law as applied by too many judges has become an ass, and that criminals are getting away with it because of silly techni- calities, That there should be curbs on the powers of the police is not disputed, Without them we have a police state. But there is a world of difference between a police state and madness on the loose. Thanks to the Charter of Rights — which more and more people are ~ coming to see as the Charter of Wrongs —- thousands of crooks have cause to applaud. f In the 1980s, for instance, 1 ‘man in Montreal called Elijah Askov was charged with extortion and armed violence, A gangster, he had been .. threatening night club owners. But the case was three years getting to court, partly because‘Askov himself kept asking for adjournments. “Under the Charter, “Any person charged with ast offence has the right to be tried within a reasonable time.” So the Supreme Court ruled that Askov’s case had not been tried within a reasonable time. He left laughing. _AS Brode put it, “Askov walked out’ of court without even having to « undergo the anxieties of a trial.” i Because of that precedent, within “four months 22,702 other cases had » been stayed, dismissed or with- - drawn. They included one in which two men'had been accused of con- . Spiring to blow up an airliner. . The Askov example “sent shock waves through the court system,” and by the end of 1991, 50,000 cases had been dismissed in Ontario alone. “The pressure on the police to play games and not protect the pub- lic has become immense,” stated ”. Brodie. f In Vancouver the police stopped a’. suspect and asked him to get out of his car. The vehicle was searched and “instruments suitable for break- ing into. coin-operating devices were found.” ; The man was convicted. But the B.C. Court of Appeal ruled that “since the police did not have a “search warrant they did not have the ”” tight to search the car. So the evi- dence they found was of no conse- “quence. Case dismissed, and another crook leaves laughing. “The difference between what happens in the courtroom and what _ happens inthe real world has . become broader and broader,” says ” Brode. “There is now a great chasm | _ between the truth and the workings of a Canadian courtroom.” Doug Collins - ON THE OTHER HAND That's one of the reasons why police often don't bother with juve- nile crime. Why bother when Junior Crook will only be told to go home and be a good boy? Police frustration is well expressed in a spoof that is going the rounds among the cops: “The Police Services Commission is now recommending that police officers use the following wording in giving suspects “right to counsel” cautions: “Tam arresting you for Whatever. (Read the reasons for the accused's apprehension directly from the Cnminal Code in French and English.) 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