Stephen Harper Doesn't Think Too Good

It was only a matter of time before Prime Minister Stephen Harper opined on the case of David Chen, a Toronto grocer who was acquitted last week of charges arising from a citizen's arrest. Yes folks, the head of the government is now commenting on shoplifting cases. After all, it's not like he has an entire country to run.

A number of people have suggested simplifying the Criminal Code of Canada to make citizen's arrests easier. I oppose this because making things simpler not infrequently makes them stupid and therefore unmanageable. Stupid and unmanageable is a dreadful combination when you're dealing with people's rights and the very real potential of violence.

And earlier this week, Harper decided to go with simplicity.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has instructed the Justice Department to look at changing the Criminal Code to ensure that what happened to David Chen doesn’t happen again.

Chen was charged with assault and forcible confinement after catching and tying up a shoplifter in Toronto. He was acquitted Friday after a judge ruled it a citizen’s arrest.

The huge public outcry over Chen’s case — especially in vote-rich Toronto — caught the attention of the government and opposition parties.

Harper’s announcement Tuesday comes in the wake of private member’s bills from the Liberals and NDP calling for changes to the law.

“Now that the case has been ruled on, and common sense has prevailed, this government — myself, the minister of justice — have instructed the Department of Justice and instructed officials to look at possible changes to the Criminal Code to prevent incidents like Mr. Chen’s from occurring again,” Harper told the House of Commons.

Catching a thief in the act is a requirement of the law when making a such a citizen’s arrest. Chen captured the shoplifter one hour after he stole plants from the store. However, Justice Ramez Khawly called the one-hour issue a “red herring,” saying the thief had gone back for more loot.

Simply put, Justice Khawly was wrong. Or more sinisterly, looking for a reason to acquit in a politically sensitive case. If, as the justice asserts, Mr. Bennett was in the act of an ongoing crime in returning to the Lucky Moose, it wouldn't have been asking much for Mr. Chen to simply wait for Bennett to take another item and arrest him then. It's much easier than you think, particularly when dealing with someone as stoned and stupid as our boy Tony.

I was willing to let this story drop, if only because my foreign readers must be sick to death with my recent focus on Toronto. Between the Chen case and the mayoral election, it must feel like I've written about nothing else. But if the Prime Minister is going to weigh in, I should make some further observations.

First, just how much simpler is the Criminal Code going to be made? Here is just one example. It doesn't matter if you're a police officer or a private citizen; if you arrest someone, you must read them their rights immediately. Do you have the constitutional caution committed to memory? I sure didn't, and I did that for a living for a year. I carried a police notebook with the caution printed inside.

If you don't read a suspect his or her rights, anything they say will be dismissed and, in all likelihood, that means the entire case goes with it. You'll have just wasted hours of everyone's time.

Second, I sure hope that the feds are going to relax the restrictions provincial law places on the use of handcuffs because you'll find that those are going come in very handy. Because Theft Under $5,000 is way down on the police's list of priorities, you're going to be waiting with your new buddy for some time. I've waited for as long as five hours.

Now, imagine the place that you're going to be holding your suspect. Think of every object in the vicinity and how much it would hurt if you got whacked on the noggin with them. The guy I worked for didn't cuff a suspect, and he got beaten about the head and shoulders with the suspect's steel frame chair. That's something that you might want to avoid.

Third, the overwhelming majority of people you're going to clip are going to be under 18 years of age. That means that an entirely new set of laws and cautions come into play. Does the federal government really expect some part-time cashier to know what they are? Or are they going to waive those laws and challenges in the case of a citizen's arrest? This is important because of you don't follow the law by the letter, a surprising percentage of parents will sue you.

Fourth, a majority of the young offenders that you arrest are going to be girls. If you're a male, holding a female suspect is a different beast entirely. The absolute last thing you need is to accused of sexual harassment, or even sexual assault - both of which are considerably more complicating to your life than a Theft Under case (in which the police are almost certainly not going to lay charges) is to your suspect.

Here's the best part: All of the above are just what I came up with off of the top of my head. I didn't give any of this any serious thought at all because I have to get ready for work. But if I did, this list would be at least twice as long.

The federal government, being the federal government, isn't thinking things through because they want other people who don't think to vote for them. But this is going to involve a lot more than amending Section 494 to allow everyone to be David Chen. It's going to involve numerous Charter issues and civil liability matters.

This sounds simple because it is. It's also stupid. And if Harper follows through with this, it's going to tie up the courts for years for the sole reason that no one's thinking now.