VANCOUVER — The B.C. Court of Appeal has ruled a law allowing city electrical inspectors to search houses for marijuana growing operations without warrants violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Five members of the court sided with appellant and Hells Angel associate Jason Cyrus Arkinstall in overturning two parts of the Safety Standards Act as unconstitutional.
Chief Justice Lance Finch wrote that the home sits at the top of a “hierarchy of places” in which people have a reasonable expectation of privacy. The inspections cross the line, he said.
“While the impugned inspections in this case are regulatory in nature, they constitute a considerable intrusion into an individual’s reasonable expectation of privacy,” Finch wrote.
The Appeal Court overturned a ruling by B.C. Supreme Court Justice Bill Smart in October 2008 that said the Safety Standards Act was constitutional, though the particular search of Arkinstall’s residence was improper.
The act has been used by city inspectors, accompanied by police, to investigate homes with higher than normal power consumption as suspected grow ops.
Arkinstall, who police describe as an associate of the Hells Angels, has an extensive criminal record and has been convicted of offences ranging from assault causing bodily harm to trafficking in cocaine, for which he was sentenced to 18 months in jail in July 2005.
In May 2007, Arkinstall was called and given two days warning that an inspection would be carried out on his 6,800-square-foot Surrey house, which he shared with his spouse and a young child.
When Surrey RCMP officers arrived with fire and building inspectors and an inspector from BC Hydro, Arkinstall wouldn’t allow the police to enter, so the fire and building inspectors wouldn’t go in unescorted.
Power was ordered cut off, forcing the couple and their young child to leave their home. It took a court order five days later to get the power turned on.
Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts said the city will not abandon its crack down on grow ops.
“We may have to alter the way we do this. We’ll adapt to the court ruling and carry on,” she said.
Vancouver Sun with files from the Surrey Now
Five members of the court sided with appellant and Hells Angel associate Jason Cyrus Arkinstall in overturning two parts of the Safety Standards Act as unconstitutional.
Chief Justice Lance Finch wrote that the home sits at the top of a “hierarchy of places” in which people have a reasonable expectation of privacy. The inspections cross the line, he said.
“While the impugned inspections in this case are regulatory in nature, they constitute a considerable intrusion into an individual’s reasonable expectation of privacy,” Finch wrote.
The Appeal Court overturned a ruling by B.C. Supreme Court Justice Bill Smart in October 2008 that said the Safety Standards Act was constitutional, though the particular search of Arkinstall’s residence was improper.
The act has been used by city inspectors, accompanied by police, to investigate homes with higher than normal power consumption as suspected grow ops.
Arkinstall, who police describe as an associate of the Hells Angels, has an extensive criminal record and has been convicted of offences ranging from assault causing bodily harm to trafficking in cocaine, for which he was sentenced to 18 months in jail in July 2005.
In May 2007, Arkinstall was called and given two days warning that an inspection would be carried out on his 6,800-square-foot Surrey house, which he shared with his spouse and a young child.
When Surrey RCMP officers arrived with fire and building inspectors and an inspector from BC Hydro, Arkinstall wouldn’t allow the police to enter, so the fire and building inspectors wouldn’t go in unescorted.
Power was ordered cut off, forcing the couple and their young child to leave their home. It took a court order five days later to get the power turned on.
Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts said the city will not abandon its crack down on grow ops.
“We may have to alter the way we do this. We’ll adapt to the court ruling and carry on,” she said.
Vancouver Sun with files from the Surrey Now
