Bumped: Border Guard Shakedown: Payback is a B**ch

In an interesting twist in the Fallan Davis vs CBSA case before the CHRT, today's hearings were canceled after the CBSA arrested Davis's mother at the border and detained her all day.

En route to the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal for her daughter Teiohontathe Fallan Davis – who alleges racial profiling at the border – Davis was arrested by CBSA investigators at the Cornwall Port of Entry for a series of Customs Act charges and failures to appear in court.

Thursday's session of the tribunal was cancelled after news of Davis's arrest.

A CBSA lawyer would not elaborate on speculation from some members of the gallery at the tribunal, who claimed the morning arrest was a "tactic" by the agency.

"They can say whatever they want," said Sean Gaudet, who represents the CBSA at the tribunal.

Wow. All I can say is that someone at CBSA has a working pair of gonads.

UPDATE: Eyewitness account from a passenger in Davis's vehicle:

They asked us where we were coming from. We told the CBSA agents that we were on our way to the Human Rights Tribunal. She asked for all of us to provide identification. Some of our team are not members or citizens of Canada, USA, Mohawk, nor Akwesasne. The CBSA agent said that she will not accept their identification cards, and we responded by yelling "We will never carry your government IDs, Never!"

...I was sitting behind the driver and I asked the CBSA agents why they were trying to escalate issues with us.

You can't make this stuff up.

One Small Win for Boisson, No Giant Victory for Mankind

The Court of Queen's Bench Alberta handed down a ruling yesterday afternoon in Stephen Boissoin's appeal of his conviction under the Human Rights Tribunal for writing a letter to the editor back in 2002. Unfortunately, the judge did not strike down the sections of the Code that made it possible for Boissoin to be persecuted in the first place. He also didn't award Boissoin costs outright, but allowed him to make a separate application for them.

You can find the decision here. A particularly delicious comment relates to the Tribunal's order that Boisson not make "disparaging remarks" about gays and homosexuals.

But clearly, "disparaging remarks" are remarks much less serious than hateful and contemptuous remarks and are quite lawful to make. They are beyond the power of the Act to regulate and the power of the Province to restrain.

Colby Cosh has a good summary of the lukewarm fence-sitting decision in MacLean's. He summarized the judge's reasoning as follows:

1. The Charter of Rights can’t be used willy-nilly by content creators in magazines and newspapers as a shield against tribunal oversight, but
2. The tribunals have to confine themselves strictly to the powers granted them by statute, defer to Charter values, respect the presumption of innocence, and in general act a lot less like a cross between a military junta and a three-ring circus.

I would completely disagree with point (1). What is the point of a Charter if we always have to check with our judiciary or, worse yet, a bunch of bureaucrats in the HRCs, before we say or print anything? The language of the charter specifies that it is the limits of these freedoms that cannot be used willy-nilly by the government against us, as the Human Rights bureaucrats are obviously doing.

More commentary at FTT here and here (and here).

Rearrange That Produce Or I'll Sue

Conversation overheard in a grocery store:

Customer: "Excuse me! I want to talk to you!"

Employee: "Yes? How can I help you ma'am?"

C: "I want to know why you moved all your organic stuff around. I was here last month and it was all one section. Where did you put it all?"

E: "It's no longer in one section. All the organic produce is with it's non-organic counterparts. Apples are by apples, bananas by bananas, etc. It's been like that since I started five months ago."

C: "No it hasn't. I was here last month and it wasn't like that. Why'd you move it?"

E: "I don't know. It was like this when I started working here. I prefer it the old way. It would make my life much easier."

C: "It's stupid. I want it back to the way it was. Now I have to walk around and around to find what I need to buy, because there's no rhyme or reason to where stuff is. Tell them they're going to lose a customer. And you can tell them that I have MCS. I want to complain about the hand sanitizer you offer to your customers. I have MCS, and if I use it and react, I'll sue. I'll sue. You need to tell them that MCS is a recognized disability and they have to accommodate it. I was at the doctor's earlier today and I reacted to something. My heart rate was one-eighty. It cost me one hundred dollars to fix it. Tell them I'll sue."

E: "I'll do that. I'll let them know."

C: "Tell them that I will sue. I've sued three pharmaceutical companies and won. I'll sue. Tell them that the Canadian Human Rights Commission recognizes that MCS is a disability, so you have to accommodate me. Look it up. I will sue if I react. Tell your manager. I will sue, and I'll win. I've won against three pharmaceutical companies; I'll win against you."

E: "I'll look it up when I get home. I'll tell my manager next time I see him."

C: "You tell him. Tell him I'll sue. I've won before and I'll win again. I'll sue,"

This is the type of people that our Human Rights Commissions breed.

I'm Not Bound By Your Laws, Unless I Can Score Some Cash

In the third instalment of the CHRT hearing of the Fallan Davis complaint against CBSA, the cross-examination of the complainant continued. The hilarity did too.

The CBSA lawyer, Sean Gaudet, asked about what she thought of Canadian laws.

"Any law passed by the Government of Canada -- you're not bound to that?" Gaudet asked.

Davis suggested she's not bound by Canadian law, but says she sees logic in certain laws, such as following posted speed limits in Akwesasne.

So are you bound by the Human Rights Code of Canada?

Davis continued to demonstrate her limitless credibility:

"The border doesn't apply to me because I'm the first people of the land," said Davis, who wore a single black mitten on her left hand for most of Wednesday's testimony.

This case makes me ask myself - could you approach a border crossing and expect to be treated kindly by the guards if you swear at them, scream at them to get off your land, and threaten to blow them up? I would think, regardless of your race, gender, or age, that they would make your crossing as miserable as possible.

More on the case here and here.

Border Guard Shakedown: "I wish I could blow this place up"

Here's a few updates in the hearings before the CHRT concerning a complaint against CBSA for alleged racial profiling when they stopped a Mohawk woman at the Cornwall border crossing.

Fallan Davis testified she had "no negative views of the CBSA" before this incident. During cross-examination, she was asked about an exchange at another visit to Canadian Customs in which she had previously stated, "I f--king hate this place, I wish I could blow it up". This was after she was pulled aside for further questioning after trying to pass through without any identification.

Okee-dokee, that demolishes that argument.

Second, Fallan Davis had at one point made it known that she attributed the loss of her unborn child to the stress of the Nov. 18 search and the effects of the rays from the CBSA's X-ray machine.

Now that she was told to supply medical records, the truth comes out. Shortly after, she aborted. Now she says that her ovaries were damaged by the incident and her own research gave her the impression that radiation can cause cell mutations, and that gave her the motivation to abort. As she said:

I didn't want to risk bringing a child into this world who would have differences from others.

Isn't that a wonderful politically-correct statement. Luckily, the CHRT isn't stupid enough to take this "oral tradition". They asked for medical documents, and to date Fallan Davis hasn't provided anything.

Third, she says that she was discriminated on the basis of gender - since all the guards dealing with her at the time were big, tough, men and that intimidated her. I guess we are going to have to cull the world of larger men to rid ourselves of this particular scourge of human rights violations.

Cross-examination continues...

CHRT to Shake Down Border Guards

Want to bet that this case will succeed only on the basis of statistics and feelings?

A Mohawk woman (Fallan Davis) is alleging that border security guards killed her unborn baby by stressing her out during a routine search of her vehicle at the border. The case almost certainly hinges on the two things that Human Rights Tribunals consider as evidence - statistics and feelings - that the rest of us (including real courts), don't care much about.

Statistics: After thumbing her nose at the Bible, Davis was sworn in by wampum and eagle feather. She claims that Mohawks are stopped and searched at border crossings much more often than white people. Well, she's probably right. But two can play the statistical profiling game: Can we present the statistics on cigarette smuggling by Mohawks as opposed to the rest of the population?

Feelings: She claimed she was told to park in an area reserved for x-ray scanning of vehicles that had warning signs for radiation. Since there is no possibility of any residual radiation from x-rays (radiation can only be generated by the x-ray source, which is well shielded when not in use), the stress that she claims is entirely a result of her own feelings. But, I guess in a human rightsy sort of way, one's feelings is another's problem. At least when the "other" has enough money to cough up a hefty "remedy".

During the search, Davis did not appear stressed - she was voluntarily combative, accusing the CBSA agents of trespassing on land stolen from her people. She called in the native elders, who arrived to a predictably hostile reception from the CBSA guards. Hell, if a driver stopped by a cop on the roadside called in a bunch of his buddies, I could understand the officer getting uptight. Sounds like the CBSA officials could haul the Mohawks before the CHRT for stress.

Finally, Davis claimed afterwards that she had paranoid delusions about the CBSA tapping her phone and watching her. I mean, what kind of society are we living in when paranoia is grounds for a shakedown?

At least the Tribunal isn't falling for the (Oral Tradition) = (Documented Evidence) BS that the SCoC bought hook, line and sinker. The tribunal chair didn't like it that she didn't have any documented evidence that the miscarriage was caused by radiation, as she alleged:

She said she filed medical documentation to support her claims, but could not produce them for the tribunal on its first day. Tribunal chairperson Rejean Belanger allowed Davis to use Monday evening to get the documents in order with the assistance of other legal counsel present at the tribunal... Belanger warned Davis about her lack of organization before he cut Monday's session short to allow her more time.

I wonder how much the taxpayer is paying to fund the legal bills of both sides of this case.

Only the Finest Hand-Picked Cher - er - Journalists

Canadian Sentinel reports that a news organization has been refused permission to cover the Copenhagen climate change summit, calling it an advocacy publication of a non-governmental or non-profit organization.

I'll give you one guess as to the editorial leanings of this organization on the subject of climate change.