A Saskatoon defence lawyer says internal police records show officers are using the city’s bicycle bylaw ‘as a ruse’ to stop and search Indigenous men downtown.
The city’s police force has fought at two levels of court to have those records suppressed, including what a judge said about them in open court.
“Judge Monar Enweani made some very important findings,” Chris Murphy said.
“Upon initial inspection, their records appear to suggest that the vast majority of people who are ticketed under the bylaw are Indigenous and the tickets are primarily issued in the Central District [downtown].”
This is the best summary I could come up with:
A Saskatoon defence lawyer says internal police records show officers are using the city’s bicycle bylaw ‘as a ruse’ to stop and search Indigenous men downtown.
It all began when Murphy was defending an Indigenous man who had been stopped by police while riding a bicycle early in the morning on June 28, 2021.
The very next day, June 28, the Crown stayed the criminal charges against his client — even though officers had recovered a sawed-off shotgun, knife, ammunition and cocaine.
This effectively ended the case before the judge could rule on whether the bicycle stop violated the man’s Charter rights, but Enweani did make some comments about the records, specifically about the vast majority of tickets going to Indigenous people.
9705, The Bicycle Bylaw, requires riders to have working bells and horns, reflectors and headlights after sunset, and orders they stay off sidewalks.
Murphy applied to have the seized items excluded as evidence at trial, citing the Charter provision protecting the right to be secure against unreasonable search or seizure.
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