A judge has ruled Hamilton Police Service (HPS) violated a woman’s Charter rights with “cavalier disregard” after smashing their way into her downtown apartment home to look for drugs.
In Hamilton, Goodman said the raids are “verging on becoming a systemic problem” after HPS officers told him when they execute search warrants, no-knock raids are used over 90 per cent of the time.
Some officers cited the “usual” concern for loss of evidence and told Goodman HPS used no-knock raids “90 per cent of the time – and maybe even more often than that.”
“Violating people’s Charter rights because we’re used to doing that regularly” is not a good excuse.
Perhaps I’d have to be a police officer to be able to say “I’m not paying you back because I don’t pay 90% or more of my bills. One of those invoices could have been fraudulent, you know.”
It warms my heart to see Canada’s judicial system still seems to work like it’s supposed to (sometimes, anyway).
ACAB
