Earlier this month I wrote about the trial of Toronto grocer David Chen and took a solidly unpopular position on it. I feel sorry for the man and understand the frustration of virtually everyone in the city who supports him.However, the law exists for a reason. It goes a long way in preventing false arrests, which I saw my share of even with the current law, and it minimizes the chances of someone getting hurt.
Mr. Justice Ramez Khaw saw things differently and almost incomprehensibly acquitted Mr. Chen this afternoon, saying “It is impossible for me to say that I am satisfied that I know what happened that day. My verdict would be 'not proven' were it available to me.” The only problem with the ruling is that the facts in the case aren't in dispute. Under the Criminal Code, a citizen's arrest may only be affected during the commission of a crime or while in hot pursuit, not an hour afterward as happened here. The law couldn't be clearer on that. Whether Mr. Chen was ignorant of the law or not is immaterial. He broke the law and didn't really argue otherwise.
It was never my wish to see Mr. Chen jailed or even have a criminal record, but the unintended consequences of this are going to be appalling in the near and long terms. Mr. Justice Khaw has essentially nullified the law. The police are going to be extremely reluctant to press charges in situations like this in the future, regardless of what happens with Olivia Chow's wrongheaded private member's bill to make citizen's arrests easier.
If that bill passes - and perhaps even if it doesn't - I can almost guarantee you that retailers are going to make the pursuit and apprehension of shoplifters a mandatory part of their employee's duties. The only thing that prevents that from happening now is the current law. As I understand it, there isn't anything in the Chow proposal that involves mandatory training in powers of arrest and the proper use of force, nor any indication of who would pay for that training if it is mandated.
Another private member's bill, proposed by Liberal MP Joe Volpe, expands the power of citizen's arrest to "reasonable grounds", which only the police currently enjoy. Essentially, that will make everyone a cop, only without the necessary training. And I don't see how any good comes of that.
The first thing that will happen is that the number of false arrests are going to skyrocket. As it is now, wrongful arrest lawsuits against retailers never go to court because there's no way to defend against them. The store just gives the person - who more often than not is guilty, but manages to drop the merchandise before being arrested - a couple of thousand dollars to go away. At some point that isn't going to be practical anymore and insurance companies are going to have to get involved, causing premiums to go up. Make no mistake, this is going to cost a fortune.
More importantly, people are going to get hurt. Someone will get killed sooner or later. Chances are that it won't be the criminal. Some kid at a checkout counter cannot be reasonably expected to know who's crazy, who's armed and who just wants to hurt somebody.
From everything that I've read, David Chen seems like a very nice man who did something stupid. However, the widespread support for him is based on populist nonsense from people who have blatantly refused to consider the consequences of what's likely to result from this.
The number of lawsuits, violent assaults and murders in this city are going to go up in a significant way in the very near future. And it'll happen because of $72 dollars worth of houseplants.
Links lovingly shoplifted from Mike Brock at The Volunteer
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