I don’t usually pay a lot of attention to our Provincial Government. Given that the electors in Alberta prefer near unanimous consent among their legislators and Provinces don’t have the power to legislate in the area of Criminal Law, I haven’t seen much need to pay attention. I suppose I should, given that our Provincial Government does not agree with the Constitutional principles I was taught at Law School (a law school located in Edmonton I might add). It seems to me that the Alberta government is determined to make criminal law in whatever way they can, and there is no shortage of creative thinking in this province on the subject. I get the sense that maybe they make policy by calling up Rick Bell every couple of days, saying “Rick, what should we do about crime” and then draft up a Bill based on his suggestions. As conflicted as I am about paying taxes and caring about civil liberties at the same time, I don’t always feel like I am getting good value for my money from my Government with the knowledge that I will pay for someone to challenge these laws and a Court to rule on them and the inevitable conclusion that they weren’t constitutional in the first place. Rather than creating unconstitutional laws, I just wish they would have spent taxpayer money fixing the sinkholes that block my orderly travel to the Courthouse in the mornings.
I had mixed feelings when I read that Ron Stevens was stepping down to become a Judge. Though I don’t always share his politics I always respected his intellect and during his tenure as Minister of Justice we were relatively free of the silly pandering and sometimes frightening laws that are currently before the Legislative Assembly. On the other hand, he is expected to become a Judge in Cow town and I welcome smart Judges on the local bench; even if they have a long history of loyalty to the Conservative party. I often find that if they are smart and intellectually honest (which is his reputation) then they often make for good criminal jurists who respect the principles of the Charter (unlike one elevated appointment who was heard to say at a dinner party that he didn’t believe in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms).
I note that Stevens appointed some good judges in this province. Judges who when they analyze Charter litigation find that whatever they may have thought before they got there – sometimes the evidence has to be excluded. Who is Judge Gaschler? Turns out he’s someone I am comfortable appearing in front of on any case any day – so long as I and my client make an effort to be on time, but I digress). The point of this commentary is to speak about privacy in Alberta.
There is an overall assault on privacy in this Province by the Government of Alberta.
This government seems to believe that it not only does not have an obligation to protect the privacy interests of the citizens of the province, but that it interferes with their agenda. In the view of the Alberta government, crime control is a fair trade-off for the ability to go to a bar and enjoy a drink without having to reveal personal information, to consult with your family doctor and not have that information available to every person working in the healthcare system in the province, or that if you are shot or stabbed you don’t have give up your Dr. /patient confidentiality. Of course, if you are shot or stabbed, you can look forward to a bill.
Bill 42 – Bar owners taking patrons IDs; Crime Prevention vs. Privacy
http://www.ffwdweekly.com/article/news-views/news/proposed-bar-law-alarms-privacy-advocates-3709/
Two friends (Call them Chow and Bates) meet regularly one night a week at a local bar to watch some hockey or sports. The bar owner now has the right to go beyond simply viewing identification to ensure they are not underage; but under Bill 42, the bar can take a copy and create a record of that identification, including the age, current address and picture. Police have publically stated that there is no law enforcement purpose to this information. Really – are they serious? A record now exists of where we go, who we are and who we associate with. The potential for abuse is significant. Who has access to and control over this information? Can they sell it to marketers? Will they supply it to the Government, insurers or other interested parties on request? The Big Brother notion is that it monitors our habits. The practical result is that it allows bars to trade this information – to whom is the question. I would assume that the local tavern’s best patrons are the biggest drinkers and perhaps the most likely to get rowdy, so I suspect this works against their interests to actually enforce it. The drink hard, play hard attitude in this province means there is just too much money at stake for bar-owners to use this for any purpose but to selectively enforce the law – but it will be a handy marketing tool.
It also says a police officer who has reason to believe that a patron is a gang member can eject the patron from a private establishment. So now an armed agent of the State can eject a customer for no other reason than the fact they are suspected of certain antisocial behavior (as opposed to all the other anti-social behavior that legally happens in bars). I can see it now: a bar owner has to stand there and watch his best patron ejected from his establishment because a police officer believes he is a gang member (although now that CPS has acknowledged they use the term too liberally, perhaps organized criminals can drink in peace after all).
But what if the aforementioned Chow and Bates attend their watering hole regularly to watch play-off hockey? And so does someone who is suspected or even known to be a gangster? The police gather the records (which they can do without warrant) and discover that Chow and Bates are always in the same bar as said gangster on the same night at the same time? We know what road this goes down; Chow and Bates are now know engaging in some very suspicious behavior given their temporal connections to said gangster in the mind of the police, sometime later – perhaps after the search warrant has been executed while Bates is playing Barbie’s with his daughter (and Chow, I know more likely than you would think) it comes to light that they were watching the hockey game. Sorry? If the gangster does happen to shoot them on the way out the bar – rest assured, the police will know so they can get on the case without delay:
Bill 46- Gunshot and Stab Wound Mandatory Disclosure Act
http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Doctors+enlisted+Alberta+gangs/1560671/story.html
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Health/Tattle+could+compromise+doctors+critics/1568249/story.html
It’s telling that Calgary police couldn’t cite any incidents of a shooting or stabbing that they weren’t aware of. My experience is that the police attend all the hospitals when there is a serious incident because that is ordinarily the first place people go when they are shot or stabbed. The only thing they ever learn is that a person was stabbed or shot and if that person chooses to disclose, who the assailant was. The confidentiality between patient and doctor protects people insofar as they can tell the medical staff everything they need to know to treat them without fear that the information will be used against them. That is a basic principle.
On a side note, we have all seen gangster movies where the person injured in a shootout goes to some dodgy underground clinic maintained by a doctor who has lost their license. I wonder if that will be the result? I also worry about the self-inflicted gunshot (suicide attempt) patients going to jail instead of getting help as a result.
If you are keeping count, we have now turned bar owners and health-care providers into agents of the state. Should we worry about how to pay for the impending litigation; here’s a solution:
Bill 48 – Bill 48, the Crown’s Right of Recovery Act; would allow the province to make criminals pay for medical attention resulting from crimes, including drunk driving
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/tobacco+injured+crooks+told/1587652/story.html
This is my favorite... As much as the Government likes to portray criminals as an endless source of cash - they are usually the least able to pay. I will mention that this violates the Canada Health Act but the Government doesn't care about that. They are determined to waste our money on politically expedient legislation that is practically useless.
I can hardly wait for Legal Aid to have to ask for a significant increase in its budget to defend its clients against the fact that they can’t afford to pay the hospital bill they received after the doctor who treated them, called the police to report that they were in the emergency room for treatment for a gunshot room.
I know it is popular to compare the current attack on Privacy and the fear-mongering about crime (all of these Bills are liberally described as tools to prevent gang activity) to the rise of Nazism in Europe in the late 30’s. I appreciate that Orwell was describing that same progression in his various literary warnings. I however, unlike Chow, do not think the analogy is appropriate. I spent last summer touring Concentration camps in Poland, Schindlers factory in Krakow, the rise of the Third Reich in Berlin, the Jewish ghetto in Prague and the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam (Lest you think I am completely morbid, I also toured Prada/Etro/Armani in Italy and generally ignored the history of Fascism there – though I did spend some time at the Vatican – draw whatever conclusion you like). The critical distinction I would make is that Jews were targeted about something they had no control over, an ethnic or religious history that was inherent to them. Gangsters and criminals in general, although the current straw man in favor to justify the erosion of rights, make a choice to break the law. I do not say that it justifies what I am implicitly criticizing – but that it does a disservice to the holocaust to make the comparison.
I always think of us Albertans as freedom loving folks- content to have just a little less involvement by the State in our personal lives. And yet our Government seems determined to collect as much information, share it and remove our privacy in it as it can. I somehow don’t think that the Iconic cowboy on his horse in the coulees of southern Alberta or the self-described redneck up north really had that in mind when he said he was a pretty conservative guy. I guess I am left with a burning question: are Albertan’s really prepared to sacrifice their private lives in the name of safety and security? In my mind, that is just not the Alberta way.
Submitted by:
David Andrews
Edited by:
David G. Chow
