Police cannot arrest lawful protesters, even to prevent violence by others, Supreme Court rules

  • 📰 globeandmail
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 35 sec. here
  • 2 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 17%
  • Publisher: 92%

Law Law Headlines News

Law Law Latest News,Law Law Headlines

It was the first Supreme Court ruling in Canadian history to address police powers in such circumstances, the court said. Two lower courts that dealt with the case both accepted that such an arrest power existed.

“This is the authority that police used to justify the biggest mass arrests in Canadian history in the G-20 debacle,” lawyer Sean Dewart said, referring to the preventive arrests of more than 1,000 people in 2010 in downtown Toronto. Mr. Dewart represented the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, which intervened in the Fleming case. “Democracy and freedom of expression are considerably more safe than they were as a result of this ruling.

The Supreme Court restored the damages order , and sharply criticized the appeal court for stressing the effectiveness of the police action when constitutional rights were at stake. “The purported power in this case would directly impact on a constellation of rights that are fundamental to individual freedom in our society,” she wrote.

Police have arrest powers under the Canadian Criminal Code for such things as resisting or obstructing officers carrying out their duty, but only when they use less intrusive methods in circumstances such as Mr. Fleming’s case, the court said. The OPP did not argue that any Criminal Code powers applied to the situation involving Mr. Fleming.

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.

I hope this helps the street preacher in Toronto

What? No shit.

Fabulous only 10 years to late, Randy wasn’t the only victim of this in Caledonia a very dark moment in the history of Ontario that for the most part unreported in the media

We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 5. in LAW

Law Law Latest News, Law Law Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

U.S. Supreme Court takes up major Louisiana abortion caseThe case will test the willingness of the court to uphold Republican-backed abortion restrictions being pursued in numerous conservative states
Source: globeandmail - 🏆 5. / 92 Read more »

U.S. Supreme Court to hear Trump bid to revive law against encouraging illegal immigrationAccording to Trump administration’s appeal to the Supreme Court, the law is important to stopping those who enrich themselves by encouraging illegal immigration
Source: globeandmail - 🏆 5. / 92 Read more »

Facebook can be forced to remove content worldwide after landmark EU court rulingFacebook slams ruling, saying it’s not the role of social platforms to monitor, interpret and remove speech that may be illegal in any particular country
Source: nationalpost - 🏆 10. / 80 Read more »

EU court rules Facebook can be forced by member states to remove certain content globallyThe ruling on Thursday is seen as a defeat for Facebook as it could increase their responsibility for what is appearing on the internet
Source: globeandmail - 🏆 5. / 92 Read more »