This seems to be getting more and more common, Where laws in the US and Canada are being created without the mechanisims in place to protect the rights of the common citizen. Have our law-makers lost it or something? I don't get why things are becoming more draconian on a daily basis.
Judge Peter West ruled the law isn't constitutional because a person charged can't mount a defence even though the violation carries a possible penalty of six months in jail. He released his decision last week.
That's it in a nutshell. You can't have a law that carries a penalty of six months in jail, with no option to mount a defence. That's stupid. This is still Canada.
Well.
The lawmakers are not chosen for their intelligence OR their skill at reading the Us or Cdn Constitution... although most of them are lawyers in both countries.
The legislators probably assume that:
Very few people have the money to fight a constitutional case of any sort
Most people will just pay the fine and complain about it, no more.
In Canada, class actions against the government may ( not sure on this) not be possible in practice
and the Canadian constitution has a let out for legislators and Judges.
In the US, one gets the impression that Homeland security with the Patriot act have doen a great job of
scaring the public into seeing terrorists hiding behind every tree and therefore not to question laws any more
and so they can pass any unconstitutional law and get away with it for years at least.
In the particular case the Judge is a Provincial judge and his rulings are not binding until re-inforced by a superior court.
