Irony, hypocrisy and cops. Nothing good can come from this trio when all three are put in play.
On Monday morning, for example, with no reference to his late father being the moving force behind it, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau released a statement celebrating the 35th anniversary of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
“I remind Canadians that we have no task greater than to stand on guard for another’s liberties,” said Trudeau.
“The words enshrined in the Charter are our rights, freedoms, and — above all — our collective responsibility.”
Too bad the irony of this has eluded him.
While his father Pierre famously proclaimed the state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation, his son now apparently sees no hypocrisy in allowing police to stick their noses into our vehicles and haul us out without the need for that invasion to be preceded by suspicious behaviour or suspected wrongdoing.
It’s a rights breaker that would have Pierre Trudeau rolling in his grave at the family plot in rural Saint-Remi-de-Napierville.
For hidden in the folds of the new Cannabis Act, tabled in the Commons last week to begin the process of legalizing the recreational use of marijuana, the Liberals bragged that the legislation would also include the toughest laws against impaired driving in the world.
In doing so, the new law, if adopted, would drop the requirement that police need reasonable suspicion that a driver has been drinking before demanding a breath sample.
This is unquestionably a violation of our constitutional right to be free from unwarranted searches and detainment.
A cop sticks head into your car, smells nothing, observes no glassy eyes, hears no slurred speech, and yet still demands you step out of your car to take a roadside breath test?
You complain, and then what? He’s now searching your vehicle, hauling stuff out of your trunk—all for being sober?
Oddly, however, the same legislation says “suspicion” is still needed to perform roadside tests for those suspected of driving with marijuana or any other drug in the system, no doubt to kowtow to millennial progressives, but that requirement is negated by the proposed hardline approach on alcohol where no suspicion is needed.
It covers off the coppers.
It means they can virtually stop you at any time, for no reason, and administer a roadside breath test, all which gives them ample time to ramp up suspicions about drug use if the breathalyzer doesn’t produce what they want.
Now, once upon a time, I believed you had nothing to fear from cops if you had done nothing wrong.
Spare me the wrath of the “thin, blue line,” but years in the news game have since taught me differently.
First, there is this thing called “quotas,” that supposedly do not exist, but do. Quotas for speeding tickets, quotas for arrests.
And then there are the younger cops of today, many who have to go to a dictionary to look up the meaning of the word “discretion.”
While you cannot judge a book by its cover, you can cops.
If you are pulled over by a cop with bulging biceps, his head shaved down to the nubs, wearing wraparound sunglasses, and with his hands protected by reinforced gloves that would be banned in mixed martial arts, you can be certain beyond a reasonable doubt you are not going to get a break.
You are screwed from the moment he says his first word.
If the Liberals' Cannabis Act is allowed to pass as it stands, it will become an open season on all drivers.
There are no two ways about it—for any or all of the reasons just stated.
On Monday morning, for example, with no reference to his late father being the moving force behind it, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau released a statement celebrating the 35th anniversary of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
“I remind Canadians that we have no task greater than to stand on guard for another’s liberties,” said Trudeau.
“The words enshrined in the Charter are our rights, freedoms, and — above all — our collective responsibility.”
Too bad the irony of this has eluded him.
While his father Pierre famously proclaimed the state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation, his son now apparently sees no hypocrisy in allowing police to stick their noses into our vehicles and haul us out without the need for that invasion to be preceded by suspicious behaviour or suspected wrongdoing.
It’s a rights breaker that would have Pierre Trudeau rolling in his grave at the family plot in rural Saint-Remi-de-Napierville.
For hidden in the folds of the new Cannabis Act, tabled in the Commons last week to begin the process of legalizing the recreational use of marijuana, the Liberals bragged that the legislation would also include the toughest laws against impaired driving in the world.
In doing so, the new law, if adopted, would drop the requirement that police need reasonable suspicion that a driver has been drinking before demanding a breath sample.
This is unquestionably a violation of our constitutional right to be free from unwarranted searches and detainment.
A cop sticks head into your car, smells nothing, observes no glassy eyes, hears no slurred speech, and yet still demands you step out of your car to take a roadside breath test?
You complain, and then what? He’s now searching your vehicle, hauling stuff out of your trunk—all for being sober?
Oddly, however, the same legislation says “suspicion” is still needed to perform roadside tests for those suspected of driving with marijuana or any other drug in the system, no doubt to kowtow to millennial progressives, but that requirement is negated by the proposed hardline approach on alcohol where no suspicion is needed.
It covers off the coppers.
It means they can virtually stop you at any time, for no reason, and administer a roadside breath test, all which gives them ample time to ramp up suspicions about drug use if the breathalyzer doesn’t produce what they want.
Now, once upon a time, I believed you had nothing to fear from cops if you had done nothing wrong.
Spare me the wrath of the “thin, blue line,” but years in the news game have since taught me differently.
First, there is this thing called “quotas,” that supposedly do not exist, but do. Quotas for speeding tickets, quotas for arrests.
And then there are the younger cops of today, many who have to go to a dictionary to look up the meaning of the word “discretion.”
While you cannot judge a book by its cover, you can cops.
If you are pulled over by a cop with bulging biceps, his head shaved down to the nubs, wearing wraparound sunglasses, and with his hands protected by reinforced gloves that would be banned in mixed martial arts, you can be certain beyond a reasonable doubt you are not going to get a break.
You are screwed from the moment he says his first word.
If the Liberals' Cannabis Act is allowed to pass as it stands, it will become an open season on all drivers.
There are no two ways about it—for any or all of the reasons just stated.
