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Alberta court finds in favour of protecting our freedoms!

by eastvanray | August 22, 2009 at 01:37 pm

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A victory for freedom. This tool is surveilance plain and simple and police forces co-opting power companies to eaves drop on their customers is offensive and goes going way too far. I am sure the police would love one of these devices installed in every home in Canada. But thankfully we are not living in the Soviet Union and the police are going to have to roll up their sleeves and do some old fashioned investigation work if they want to bust those evil growers of pot.

CALGARY -- Alberta's top court says police use of a digital recording amp-metre without judicial authorization, to determine if there is a marijuana grow operation in a home, vioates the homeowner's privacy rights.

In a split, 2-1 decision released on Friday, the Alberta Court of Appeal ruled that Calgary police should not have requested Enmax to install the device to create a record of when electrical power was being consumed at Daniel James Gomboc's southwest home in January 2004, before obtaining a warrant.

"It has been famously said that, 'The state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation,'" wrote Justice Peter Martin, who ordered a new trial for Gomboc.

"The actual prohibition is much broader: in our society, absent exigent circumstances, the state has no business in the homes of the nation without invitation or judicial authorization."

Lawyer Charlie Stewart, who represented Gomboc - convicted of producing marijuana and possession for the purpose of trafficking at Court of Queen's Bench in 2007 - said the decision affects every grow op case in Alberta in which police have used the DRA technology.