1. When an officer tells you to give your property to him, say “no I refuse to give you my property” or “give me back my property”. Do not yell or be aggressive.
2. If he refuses ask him to tell you the reason why. Try to document it in personal notes or on audio or video.
3. Ask for his name and badge number. Also try and capture video of him or her.
It is probable that these seizures are not lawful but it’s never clear cut in court.
UPDATE:I have started to receive calls from people arrested. It appears that the allegation is “aiding:abetting mischief”. There some basis for this to be alleged although it may not hold up in court.
At this stage it is CRUCIAL that you don’t say anything to police other than:
A) your name and address
B) the comments I mentioned above.
Note that this is not legal advice since it cannot apply to every possible fact pattern but it’s generally sound information given what we know.
It does not appear that @MaximeBernier was informed of his full rights to counsel “immediately” as required by the Supreme Court in R. v. Suberu. In addition to challenging every other horrifying aspect of this case, @JCCFCanada should raise this as well. [Thread continues]
Full, technical compliance with the law would have seen the arresting officer read the rights where the cuffing first took place. But even once back at the cruiser, there’s a conversation and no officer pulls out a card to read the full rights; Bernier then enters the cruiser.
It is not okay for the police to wait until some other point — even a couple minutes later — because ‘right to counsel’ is *that* important, and no aspect of it may be delayed. It’s right there in section 10(b) of the Charter. But this is a “systemic problem” in many places in 🇨🇦