Pixiq

The most pertinent observation here is how common this was in the Eastern bloc and the Soviet Union. LEOs, do you really want to adopt that mindset?

As a native American, I wonder what the rights are in Canada. If this was on public property, not being in the way and easily visible to the public, this would be a violation of Constitutional rights. I know that in Britain, rights are ‘assumed’ and not written down in any guarantee. What does Canada have in this regard?

English common law, which means it is only assumed until they assume differently. They have added some guarantees, but they’re only as good as the latest HRC decision. What a basket case up north.

Too bad. I was hoping Canada was at least not joining America in this madness.

Damn, there goes my moral superiority…
I’m sad to see this behaviour creeping into Canada, but I’d like to highlight that this incident, although disturbing, was consumately Canadian – no one was hurt or arrested and the photographer had his equipment and photos returned in a timely manner. I’m not excusing the lack of judgement on the part of the officer involved. The photographer was well within his rights and this is clearly a disturbing trend to confiscate first and sort out the legallity after the fact.
We do have the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in Canada, though it only dates back to 1982, so we are slightly ahead of a pure common-law situation. The Charter has some significant flaws, but does include the right to peaceful assembly. For anyone interested, wikipedia has a decent article on it including comment on it’s flaws here.

LoTek,

You’re absolutely right I forgot about the Charter. Confused Canada for Australia, they’ve been arguing whether to create a Charter or Bill of Rights and still pretty much operate under common law. However, until you dump the HRCs….