An application to provincial court by the BCCLA has unsealed part of an “information” filed by the RCMP to obtain a search warrant in a criminal defamation investigation of a blogger critical of police. Ten RCMP and New Westminster police officers allegedly attended a New Westminster resident’s home and took his computers and cell phones using the search warrant. The information filed to obtain the search warrant, which contained the background information about why the warrant was required, was sealed so that no member of the public could read it.
What has been released is a heavily redacted version of the information with large blacked out areas obscuring information throughout. As a result, the BCCLA is continuing with their application to the court to have those remaining areas of the document unsealed. The application will be heard on October 16, 2012 at 9:30 a.m. in Surrey Provincial Court.
The documents contain new unproven allegations against Jim Brown, the Coquitlam RCMP officer who was the subject of recent controversy, and confirms additional code of conduct (paragraph 57, 74), and criminal (paragraph 62) investigations involving allegations against that officer under RCMP project name ENORTHER (paragraph 69). The documents also strongly suggest that Jim Brown was not the individual featured in the most violent of the photographs released and/or viewed by the media during the summer, and attributed to Brown.
The information released so far suggests the search warrant was targeted at private e-mails and comments left on internet websites and through a twitter account that contained unproven and allegedly defamatory allegations against Brown and other RCMP members.
“Our criminal courts and processes work consistently with democracy when they are at their most open and transparent,” said David Eby, Executive Director of the BCCLA. “We are disappointed that we have to make special applications to the Court to find out what happened in this matter where police used their search warrant powers at a private home in a speech related issue. If anything, this matter should be more, not less, transparent.”
The BCCLA has tracked use of the criminal defamation power across Canada, and found that the most recent cases involving the controversial and potentially unconstitutional charge consistently involve high-profile criticisms of the police. Cases in Fredericton, Niagara and now Vancouver all match that pattern.
“Average citizens can’t call 911 if someone defames them, they must sue through the civil courts,” notes Eby. “Why is it that police are able to use all the power of the criminal law when someone allegedly defames them?”
Click here to read redacted information
Click here for initial press release on our application to unseal
