The federal government introduced yet another tough-on-crime bill this week that creates a new offence for leaving the province, gives police easier access to search warrants and allows for the collection of photographs and fingerprints before an offender is charged.
The new bill was introduced May 15 and Edmonton-Spruce Grove MP Rona Ambrose touted it this week as the latest step in the government’s crime agenda.
“It modernizes criminal procedure and makes it more efficient and more effective.”
Ambrose rolled out the legislation at Edmonton police headquarters on Wednesday in a press conference following a meeting with Edmonton Police Chief Mike Boyd and several other regional police chiefs.
Boyd said he was pleased the government was adapting the law to keep up with changing technologies that police are seeing more and more, like BlackBerrys.
“I am encouraged by the enthusiasm the government has for modernizing the legislation,” he said. “We have to have a system of justice that moves along with those new technologies.”
The law will make it easier for police officers to obtain search warrants over the phone. Local MP Brent Rathgeber said warrants are often difficult to obtain outside of regular business hours, especially in smaller communities and the government wanted to change the laws to make it easier.
“Outside of major centres it is difficult, if not impossible, to get a warrant outside of business hours.”
If passed, the bill will also allow police to fingerprint and photograph someone who has been taken into custody before they are formally charged.
Local defence lawyer Rory Ziv said he doesn’t understand why the police would need to fingerprint someone they haven’t formally charged and he is worried the personal information will be abused.
“That seems to go against the grain of our tradition of constitutional law,” he says. “Once our personal information is in the hands of the federal government it is often hard to get it back.”
Rathgeber said police told the government they needed this change in cases where they suspect someone of a crime, but don’t have their fingerprints on file to check against existing evidence.
He expects it will be challenged, which is an important part of the process.
“I have no doubt this will be tested in the courts and rightfully so.”
The law also creates an entirely new charge for offenders on bail who leave the province they were charged in. Ziv said offenders who are on bail usually have to stay in the jurisdiction and leaving would be a breach of those bail conditions.
“We have a charge to cover that already. I don’t understand the need for a new law.”
Ziv said he suspects that change has more to do with politics than good legislation.
