OTTAWA CITIZEN
Welcome to Canada, a place where we apparently have two kinds of justice. One for “real” Canadians. And one for uppity refugees and immigrants who should thank their lucky stars we let them access our court system.
At least that’s the conclusion you might draw reading the recent judgment of Justice Adam Germain of the Court of Queen’s Bench.
This month, Germain awarded $11,650 in damages to an Edmonton couple after a police tactical team, acting on dubious information, pushed their way into the house, machine-guns and rifles at the ready, during their son’s fifth birthday party.
Germain ruled the police had no probable cause to enter the home, especially without a search warrant. He found police acted without a plan, that the tactical team entered the home only because they’d been given incomplete information by a detective.
The couple sued for between $40,000 and $50,000. But Germain ruled that the police acted in good faith, and the couple, Susan Kolbowicz, and her husband, Abdulahi Mahamed, suffered no lasting physical or financial harm. He awarded no punitive damages. Then he ended his judgment with a little lecture to Mahamed, who came to Canada decades ago from Somalia.
Mahamed, the judge said, had been given the right to sue, the right to hire a lawyer, the right to appear before a court not controlled by the police or military.
“None of this would have been possible in the country from which he fled,” noted the judge. “It is my hope that he will look at the broad picture and put this incident behind him.”
Well, isn’t that swell. Our justice system is better than that of Somalia, a country in a state of perpetual violence and anarchy. I guess Mahamed is supposed to count his blessings, be grateful we let him into Canada, and shrug off the fact that heavily armed officers burst into his son’s party, then handcuffed him outside in the cold March weather in full view of the neighbours.
Now let me tell you a little bit about Susan and Abdulahi, who live across the lane from me. Susan is a fine pianist, a music teacher, a choral director, a passionate gardener. She’s the kind of mom who takes her two kids to the symphony and the theatre, as well as soccer games, skating lessons, and Girl Guides.
Abdulahi is the past president of our community league, a volunteer with the federal Conservative party, an appliance salesman who speaks five languages fluently. They’re true community leaders, the kind of solid citizens whose contributions enrich our city every day.
So how did police end up at their door at all? It seems Susan’s brother, who lives in Vancouver, had corresponded online with a woman from California who was embroiled in a nasty custody dispute. California police suspected the woman, whom they described as unstable, suicidal and possibly armed, had left the United States with her child, in defiance of a court order. After her car was found at Vancouver’s airport, U.S. authorities contacted the RCMP.
RCMP in turn contacted police in Vancouver and Edmonton. The Mounties asked Edmonton police to make “discreet inquiries” to determine whether the woman had come to Edmonton to find Susan’s brother, who visits here. “In case of positive results, DO NOT APPROACH SUBJECTS,” said the RCMP memo.
Edmonton police were merely asked to contact California authorities and Immigration Canada.
Local police could have applied for a search warrant to search the family’s home. They didn’t. Instead, they ignored the clear RCMP directive and burst into my neighbour’s house without any just cause to think this woman or her child were there.
Justice Germain had particularly tough words for the lead detective, Paul Czerwonka.
“I conclude that Det. Czerwonka was so intrigued by the opportunity to provide action-filled services to the American authorities … he forgot his basic training and caution. He chose not to make any attempt to obtain a warrant, heard only what he wanted to hear … and assumed the RCMP did not know what they were talking about,” he wrote.
Police didn’t just make a mistake. They acted rashly, without respect for the constitutional rights of every Canadian, new or old, to be protected from unreasonable search and seizure. And if this could happen to my ordinary, law-abiding neighbours, it could happen to anyone. Our police service needs to get the message that such behaviour is not acceptable. A slap-on-the-wrist judgment of $11,650 hardly does that.
But at least the police acted in the heat of the moment, with only good intentions. What excuse did Germain have for his patronizing judgment? My neighbour isn’t Somali. He’s Canadian. So are his wife and children. This family looked to our courts for justice, for respect, for equality before the law. I wish they’d found it.
Paula Simons writes for the Edmonton Journal.
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