More matters of If this were played upon a stage now, I could con- demn it as an improbable fiction, The Twelfits Naght - Act HI Se.4 WILLIAM Shakespeare was not considering the thought processes of British Coiumbia judges when he penned those words some 450 years ago or so. But they certainly seem appropriate when look- ing at the written deci- sion issued by Madame Justice Levine in the B.C. Supreme Court last week. The case in question involves some Vietnamese dope dealers. “Street Crew.” a coilec- tion of Vancouver Police Detectives and RCMP inves- cigators, developed intorma- tion from a scuzzy little doper concerning a “dial-a- dope” operation in East Vancouver on Grandview Highway. Unfortunately for the cops, as it turned out, this new snitch had been untried before. The doper was arrested with “decks” of heroin and cocaine, The source said it was purchased from “Sonny” —~ a street name. — and a contact cell phone number _ and vehicle description were provided. The resulting investigation turned up potential suspects, an address (duplex) in East Van and two black Nissan Maximas at the suspe.t address matching the descrip: dion provided. crime and | punishment Given the problems the police have in using source information thanks toa decade and a half of Charter decisions, the cops attempted to buy dope trom the sus- pects using undercover ofti- cers ina “cold approach.” No such luck. In order to get a search warrant for the house in question, the cops had to conduct surveillance over sev- eral days to corroborate dhe information provided by the original source. During this process, they observed the resident of the house get into the same car described by the original source and drive to a location where a female was picked up on acorner, The vehicle drove around the block with the female and let her out at the pickup location. The polive arrested and searched the female and found, guess what? A couple of “flaps” of cocaine and heroin. After a couple of well- placed questions, they deter- mined she had purchased the drugs from a Viet dealer named “Sonny” who drove the black Nissan the cops had been following and, to top it all off, she had phoned the same cell number as the orig- inal source to arrange the dope delivery. OK, are you beginning to see a pattern here? A reasonable person might actually arrive at the canchu sion that someone at that house on Grandview Highway who goes by the street name of “Sonny” seils cocaine and heroin in split gram amounts and works off a speeitic cell phone. Further investigation revealed an individual of Vietnamese origin tiving at the specific house on Grandview Highway owned a black Nissan and had a cell phone revistered to him with —— are you ready — the exact same phone number as both dopers gave police as the contact number for the “dial- a-dope” operation. When the officers went to the Justice of the Peace to get the search warrant, a cou- ple of things occurred that would ultimately result in Justice Levine tossing out the warrant and the truits of the search, The nuts and bolts of the decision revolved around two issues. The first was because the warrant was issued to “the peace officers of British Columbia.” not the specific officers who conducted the search. The issue here has to do with the old Narcotic Control Act and the new Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. Under the NCA, the officers conducting the search had to be named in the warrant. The new leg- islation has no such require- ment. Despite this, the judge ruled the warrant invalid because no officer was speciti- cally named. Thre judge abo expressed concern about the method used by police to enter the residence. Specifically, the police entered the house Success based on twin pigues Dvear Editor: _ Asa mother of twia boys aged live years, I looked at your artic te, “Dexble take on success” (Friday, Dec. 25} with interest. Unfortunately, my interest. soon turned to disgust. The formula (for success) these owe self-centred men seem to think is: to “hang around successful people,” live a glamourous fife, and kevp plenty of single, beaut ful girls in supply. CRISIS i YOUR LIFE? Discover the strength, security and power that comes only through faith in CHRIST Find out more every Sunday at 10:45am at DELBROOK BaPTist CHURCH 515 West Windsor Rd, North Vancouver, : or call 985-4011 Mon - Fri Sam - Ipm Pastor Jamey McDonald What role models! On the Previous page was an article featuring the Harvest Project. These are the success stories! People like David Fuster, Randy Fraser and Winston Rekert have the true sceret of : helping their fellow man. and giving others 3 “hand up.” These are the avahiues Pd like 10 instill in my children, and it’s a shane the Urrea boys weren't taught the same Elizabeth Nicholls Victoria, B.C. ; Lube & Filter 9! En Safety check, 15 minutes - FAST! includes up to 5 tres of 10W30 Quakerstate 1362 Marine Drive 980-9115 B.00an-6:00pm, Sun 9:00amn-5 00pm Expires Jan 27/99 = Defiewx-Saxelby Insurance eServices Inc. 105-200 West Esplanau- North Vancouver (Located beneath Famous Players Theaire) injustice forably unannounced and with puns drawn, Levine stared she didn’t care that thts was standard operating procedure and argued it was a vigltion of the nights of the accused sim- ply because there was no spe- cific statutory authority tor the police to do this, Now, lest anyone think T believe the police should be able to forge the legal niceties when they execute a search warrant, let me dispel that right now, The sanctity of a person's house is para mount ina tree saciety. In my view that is an absolute. So, too, is an individuals right against unlawful search and seizure. But it seems to me that We as a society also need to be protected against those who choose to five bevond the law. The police in this case investigated the information they received. They conduct- ed surveillance to corroborate the information. They tried unsuceesstully to eliminate the need for source informa- tion by making “buys” shem- selves. When this didn’t work our, they developed a second source tonally independent of the first. When they searched the house they round all the evi- dence supporting the inter mation and arrested and charged the people associated with the house and the “dial- a-dope” operation. But Madame Justice Levine decided that none of this mattered. She ordered the warrant invalid and all evidence seized by police inadmissable. Asa result of the decision, the Crown must now consid: er dropping all charges in cases where the police used a search warrant in which no atticer is named or in which a forcible entry was used. They could, of course, appeal the Levine decision, but that is expensive and time-consum- ing in a system already weighed down with pedantic appeals. Invariably, all outstanding cases will now be dropped. There doesn’t seem to be much “justice” in tais “sys- tem.” — lknight@direct.ca Wednesday, January 73, 1999 - North Shore News — ACCOUNTING SERVICES Monthly, Quarterly, Yearly Corporate & Personal! Taxes Financial Statements Bookkeeping, Budgets & Payroll Free initial Consultation DON LANE 921-3322 Dr. James M. Sweeney B.Sc., B.A., D.D.S. 204-1590 Bellevue Ave., West Vancouver 922-8929 With This Winter Value Offer from Suzuki COMPLETE SERVICE PACKAGE 95 '¥ — Most Suzuki's, plus enviro levy. Inciudes onl & filter change, chassis lube, brake adyusimens, inspection & Hud top up, pect & adjust atl beits & hoses, check eanaust system, rotate tres, check igi Z Bran the L ower Mainland since 197. , SS ” Another | one of our designs. 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