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Fee Waiver and Expedition Request
I am requesting a file destruction on prints that should not have happened, and I’m going to explain why. While I’m not a member of the bar, I do have a legal background, and this should be interpreted as a letter from a lawyer. If the officer had listened to me in the first place, none of this would have happened.
A part of me wishes that I would have gone to trial so that I could attach a scathing denouncement of the situation by a judge. As it is, I have to point this out - the evidence in the case was never presented to a judge for analysis. How can I be in a situation where I have prints on file that are going to affect my border travel, when the issue was never put before a judge? That is preposterous. & yet, this is the reality I am faced with, due to the actions of a rogue officer.
On Sept 12th, 2018, an officer that I had had previous negative encounters with appeared at my door and asked me to stop applying to an advertisement for an apartment, under threat of being charged with harassment. Now, harassment in canada is very explicit - it specifically refers to threatening behaviour that causes a victim to fear for their safety, and does not apply to behaviour that is merely annoying. Fully aware that my behaviour would simply not qualify as harassment in a canadian legal context (and that attempts to define behaviour that is similar to mine as harassment have been declared unconstitutional by the united states supreme court), I asked the officer to define the term ‘harassment’ under the law. He told me that harassment was behaviour that is repeatedly annoying - and that is wrong. I told him that was incorrect, and invited him to write a report, fully aware that, under canadian law, an officer is required to obtain a warrant to make a charge on a hybrid offence, and that an arrest should not happen, even if charges are filed. I expected that the officer would fail to obtain a warrant, because a judge would understand what harassment is.
Unfortunately, the officer came back ten days later and arrested me without a warrant. I was then held without cause and fingerprinted while in custody, aware that struggling or refusing would be futile, and perhaps harmful. I think the most cursory observation of the evidence suggests that I was illegally detained, and because I was illegally detained I was also illegally printed. I will be dealing with this in the upcoming months.
After seven weeks of obfuscation by the crown, the charges were eventually dropped due to a lack of evidence - no reasonable chance of conviction. Great. Yet, I could have told you that in the first place - and a judge would have certainly stated as much, had the officer sought a warrant, as he is required to under the law.
It is one thing to have the officer(s) make an honest mistake and for an acquitted person to request a destruction after vindication through trial. It is another thing altogether for a person’s constitutional rights to be completely trampled over, and end up printed in a case that no judge would have ever issued a warrant for, and that ends up withdrawn over a lack of evidence. Had the officer sought a warrant, as he was required to, it would have been denied and the prints would have never been taken.
As mentioned, I will be pursuing this assault on my constitutional rights to various ends.
In the mean time, I have had my access to detroit severely restricted by these prints, which should have clearly never been taken. I am a disabled person on a fixed income. Why should I pay for the officer’s error? And why should I be subject to any waiting period at all? Have I not already (unjustly) suffered enough due to the officer’s incompetence, or malice?
Please note that I will also be applying to renew my nexus card in the new year - that I have expedited border clearance as a consequence of my flawless record. Why should I lose that over withdrawn charges that should have never been filed?
I am consequently requesting an immediate destruction, as well as a fee waiver on it.
While I am willing to accept an apology, what I want is immediate action; I would like to be able to get to detroit for new year’s eve at the latest, please. My life has already been disrupted enough, as it is.