JUSTICE SYSTEM COULD USE SOME RESOLUTIONS FOR 2007

Editor, The News:

Let's hope that in 2007 the Canadian justice system does a better job
of protecting the public than its principles.

All charges were recently dropped against the owner and four crew
members of a fishing boat that RCMP said was attempting to import
1,630 kg of marijuana to B.C. in May 2006. ("Big pot case against five
falls apart," Times Colonist, Dec. 23, 2006).

Despite having seized the $6.5 million worth of marijuana, it was
deemed inadmissible as evidence on procedural grounds.

Without "evidence," Crown prosecutors saw no point in proceeding to
trial. The owner even got back his boat.

The same boat owner owned another seized boat in 2001 that had 2.5
tonnes of cocaine aboard worth an estimated $250 million. Two of the
same crew members were on that boat. However, no charges were ever
laid in connection with that seizure.

And an Abbotsford man discovered with a loaded semi-automatic pistol
by a police officer had charges dismissed on grounds that he was
unlawfully detained and therefore the gun was not admissible in court
("Wust charges dismissed," The News, Dec. 19).

The Supreme Court ruling said that "an officer is not entitled to
detain a person, for investigative purposes, on the basis of a hunch."

The courts are so busy chastising the police that they are forgetting
who the bad guys are. My suggestion is that all seizures be done in
the accompaniment of a police dog, which can deliver some true justice
on the spot. At least then the police will have had more bite in
delivering justice than the courts do.

Ken Macquisten

Abbotsford