For Immediate Release
June 8, 2006
OTTAWA – The Canadian Bar Association continues to strongly oppose portions of the Criminal Code that place police officers and their agents above the law.
“These provisions fly in the face of the central premise of the rule of law – that there is one law that applies equally to all,” says Greg DelBigio of Vancouver, chair of the CBA’s National Criminal Justice Section. “Neither police nor their agents are justified in committing crimes in the name of law enforcement.”
The law allows police and agents of the police – including informants and criminals – to commit serious crimes without appropriate accountability. The CBA says that not only should police officers not be exempt from criminal law, but when it comes to their agents, “the risk associated by including an agent ...outweighs any potential benefits.”
In its letter on the three-year review of Criminal Code sections 25.1 to 25.4, the CBA has expressed the same concerns it had with the initial legislation, Bill C-24, that had been seriously criticized but was passed quickly in the weeks following Sept. 11, 2001. “We opposed the Bill then and our opinion has not changed. We are strongly urging the government to repeal those four sections that allow police and their agents to break the law.”
The CBA notes that if the current law remains in effect, it should at least be amended to require prior judicial authorization before a breach is condoned. “Any record keeping and reporting should also provide enough detail for genuine scrutiny,” adds Greg DelBigio.
If the controversial law stays in force, the CBA supports ongoing three-year reviews, given that these sections disregard normal principles of criminal law.
Greg DelBigio will present the CBA views to the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights on Thursday, June 8, at 3:30 p.m. in Room 269, West Block. The CBA letter is available online at:
http://www.cba.org/CBA/submissions/pdf/06-26-eng.pdf
The Canadian Bar Association is dedicated to improvement in the law and the administration of justice. Some 36,000 lawyers, law teachers, and law students from across Canada are members.
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CONTACT: Hannah Bernstein, Canadian Bar Association, Tel: (613) 237-2925, ext. 146; E-mail: hannahb@cba.org.
