UPDATED 04/01/13 – MORE COMMENTS RECEIVED – Abbotsford Today has learned that the Abbotsford Police Department (APD) is appealing the acquittal of marijuana activist Tim Felger claiming Supreme Court Justice Brian Joyce erred in his interpretation of the Charter of Rights.
Drug squad officer arresting Tim Felger in front of his Da Kine storefront
Justice Brian Joyce ruled the APD broke the law when they searched Felger’s Da Kine political offices on Essendene Ave in Abbotsford.
Joyce ruled that the police conducted a warrantless search and then obtained a second warrant based on their illegal entry. A great deal was made in the community through publication in the local newspapers of allegations Felger had been selling marijuana to minors.
Felger successfully argued he had ‘Reasonable Expectation of Privacy’ within the meaning of s.8 of the Canadian Charter and Rights in connection with an undercover police officer’s attendances at his place of business.
Felger had posted prominent legal notices on the outside of the premises naming the officers and citing their badge numbers who were not welcome in his premises without a warrant.
Mission RCMP and the District of Mission ran into issues regarding warrantless searches when enforcing their Controlled Substances Bylaw.
The APD served notice on Felger this morning at 9 am that are appealing the judge’s decision. They are asking that the acquittal be set aside and a new trial ordered.
Felger told Abbotsford Today “I am not worried. Ken Beach is my lawyer and we will just take their arguments apart piece by piece. Systematically and deliberately we will prove my case.”
To read a downloadable PDF copy of the Notice of Appeal simply Click Here.
Rob Bartlett Says:
This is a personal vendetta against Felger, how dare the Police, a publicly funded entity appeal the Supreme Court in Her decision – The court has ruled in favor of Liberty and Freedom and against tyranny and harassment – let’s move on! This is a waste of tax payer money and will end up costing the City many millions of dollars more in legal costs. The people should stand up and say NO MORE! this witch hunt has cost us enough already. As it stands, I bet they’ll will be facing a lawsuit large enough that would make larger, more affluent cities quake in their financial coffers. This man has been wronged, the Supreme Court says so, and someone paying. That is why they are appealing I am sure – they are playing ALL IN with taxpayers dollars
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Meghann Coughlan Says:
Every appeal costs money. Each employee is paid with tax dollars and no one is about to do anything for free.
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Felger’s charges and the Police Appeal need to
focus on whether there is enough evidence that
Felger sold Marijuana to minors at his DeKine
Store.
It should be irrelevant, whether a undercover Police
Officer was present in the store, when the alleged
crime occured.
Marijuana Trafficking is illegal and esp. should not
be sold to minors and definately not at a very public
place, at a business.
Having said that, I do seriously question the harrass-
ment of Tim Felger, by the ADBA, which led to the city
to also get on board to call out the troops to have him
removed with the end result being to having a reason to
shut down his business, which was a “thorn” in Mr. Bos’s
side.
If, I had a business nearby, I, too, would have been
concerned about some of Felger’s business practises.
However, I would hope as a business owner that I would never
be able to simply be forced out and have my business shut
down, because, of a select group of people, who did not see
my business as being up to their standards and without actual
proof of a crime being committed.
Eddie Ed Wilson Says
$$$!! What will this cost us? Aside from looking like a city so far behind the times that it still wastes time & money in a war against pot!
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Meghann Coughlan Says
Ridiculous. There are people selling crack to kids in this town and APD wants to waste taxpayer dollars to fund their pissing contest with Tim Felger?
Come on, APD, surely your time would be better spent anywhere else?
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Rob Bartlett Says
It’s the same MO as the Police used against him in Mission, allegedly selling drugs to minors, ratted out by a “concerned business owner” and complaints about “traffic” and “offensive political signage”. All bogus charges with no proof of selling drugs to minors at all, as ruled on in the supreme court decision. We all know trafficking is illegal and best done by the violent criminals who are either above the law or know how to circumvent it (sarcasm), but persecuting a man for his personal beliefs that are quite frankly shared by a majority Canadians is an affront to our freedoms (unless you live in Abbotsford I guess),
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Meghann Coughlan Says:
My 13 year old could walk down crack alley and purchase coke, crack, meth, heroin, ecstasy, you name it… and THIS is what they are pursing with our tax dollars?
We’ve got a seniors housing complex going up steps away from where these people are living and doing business.
Prostitutes are selling their bodies to disgusting pig men to feed their addictions and the Warm Zone had to beg for funding… and again, THIS is what they are spending our tax dollars on???
Banman likened addicts to pedophiles. Council wants to throw 17.5 million at a YMCA that will be in direct competition to our municipal recreation centres.
Every day I hear stories about families in government housing trying to live alongside crack addicted women who abuse their children. I know of teen prostitutes bringing money home to their drug addicted parents. I’ve heard of another woman who allows her teenage son to sodomise her toddler with broomsticks and lego.
And THIS is what they are spending our money on?
Abbotsford is a disgusting mess. The public is going to jump on board with this witch hunt thanks to the BS printed in our traditional newspapers. I’ve already seen comments like, “The pursuit of justice is not a waste of money!”… THIS is justice? Seriously?
You know what justice looks like? It looks like busting the disgusting dealers downtown who are turning young people on to heavy drugs. It’s ensuring that our seniors live in safe neighbourhoods to walk around in. It’s funding the Warm Zone and other outreach programs to help these people realise they are worth more than they believe they are. It’s the police actually taking complaints from BC Housing units seriously. That would be an excellent start.
But wasting our cash to fund their personal witch hunt is NOT what should be going on. All this attention and media coverage because they say Felger sold some weed to a minor while that alley is still going strong is a complete joke.
This town frustrates me to no end sometimes.
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Several prominent people in the community have had their noses pushed in by Tim Felger and, if he carries out his stated intentions to sue for wrongful arrest, damages, costs and financial losses and at least one civil suit, there may be more who will be publicly embarrassed as he tells his story, calls witnesses and asks questions – which will have to be answered.
While drug gangs continue to sell hard drugs to kids and addicts as freely as they did before the leaders of the gangs moved to other communities or to jail, the APD, the City of Abbotsford, the Abbotsford Downtown Business Association (ADBA) and all those who decided a political activist who thumbed his nose at authority was a very important target are now focusing all their attention on gaining lost ground they will not be able to retrieve.
So important, apparently, that, as a Supreme Court Judge ruled in December, they broke the law by entering his premises without a warrant on a trumped up charge of selling marijuana to a minor.
We’d still like to know (we’ve asked before) who told the police and the newspapers Felger had sold drugs to a minor?
But then that too will come out in court now that the APD has decided to appeal the case.
There are several people in Abbotsford’s elite who will be dragged through the courts before Felger is finished with them and now, the APD’s attention is going to be taken up fighting an appeal of the judgment against them.
Yes, this is the kind of thing on which our tax dollars are spent because the people who spend them have too much to lose if people start asking the right questions and looking under the right rocks.
Personally, and as a journalist, I’m pleased they’re appealing the fact their case was thrown out. It will keep Tim fighting and fired up for as long as it takes him to get what he deserves back from the powerful little nabobs in Abbotsford who abused their positions of influence in a personal vendetta against someone who, it turns out, was a lot smarter than they were.
Stay tuned. This will get much more entertaining.
Mike Archer
Rob Bartlett Says:
He has lost a lot in this pursuit, they have gained nothing. It will get a good story
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