Justice committee  That is such a difficult question. I think in principle I would say that there ought to be obligations, whether they come through the charter or through some sort of parallel provincial legislation or otherwise. I think there certainly has to be some sort of accountability akin t

Justice committee  I couldn't agree more. I have nothing to add to that.

Justice committee  No. I would prefer that an innocent person not be charged at all.

Justice committee  Well, I do think so. As I said before in response to another member's question, I was very torn by the decision. However, at the end of the day, I do think the court arrived at the right decision.

Justice committee  Yes.

Justice committee  No, I don't think it does. As I said before with respect to the “reasonable time”, the police quite rightly err on the side of laying charges when they're unsure, for the protection of the public at large. In this case—and I'm certainly not criticizing the use of the word “reaso

Justice committee  I would have to say that I was very torn when I read Justice Khawly's decision in R. v. Chen. On the one hand, I think the reason that all of the political parties seem to have taken hold of this case and sympathized with Mr. Chen...that resonates with me, because I think the s

Justice committee  It's hard to say. I have a hard time disagreeing with Professor Rigakos about the one-day limit. I obviously would grow more cautious as the time became expanded. I would note that in David Chen's case, he was acquitted on the basis of the original legislation, so the one- to t

Justice committee  I doubt that.

Justice committee  I could certainly agree in principle with providing clarity to citizens in effecting these arrests. I would agree with Professor MacDonnell about the uncertainty caused by the reasonableness requirement and what is feasible in the circumstances. You raised the example of rural

Justice committee  Sure. The Alberta Court of Appeal, in a case called Lerke, a 1986 judgment, determined that the charter in fact did apply to citizen's arrest. The basis for that conclusion was really an historical analysis that was done on the power of citizen's arrest, that in fact the power o

Justice committee  Yes. Perhaps I could answer in English. Thank you. In my experience and in the experience of members of my law firm and other lawyers with whom I speak, private security guards have less training, have less experience with the use of force than do police officers. To become a po

Justice committee  In short, if you have that sort of reasonableness requirement you are leaving it to the common law to figure it out, and the courts are going to have to figure it out. It's not the first time that such language has been used and the common law has been left to figure it out. Ther

Justice committee  Self-defence...?

Justice committee  I'd say about a dozen. I should mention that I am not an academic.