Civil asset forfeiture is the legal procedure for seizing your assets without the tedious requirement of convicting you, the hapless property owner, of a criminal offence. If it were anyone but government officials doing the stealing, this would be called theft. Because it’s government, their lawyers call it a ‘victimless prosecution’ where the property, not the property … [Read more...]
Motor City Madness: Are Detroit’s Civil Forfeiture Abuses Coming to Canada Next?
On February 4, 2020, The Institute for Justice filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Detroit, hoping to end the Motor City’s “seize and ransom” vehicle program. Detroit’s policing for profit scheme is very lucrative, as all money received through civil forfeiture goes directly to the police department responsible for the seizure. “Wayne County has seized more than … [Read more...]
Civil Asset Forfeiture and the Lack of Due Process
I've written on civil asset forfeiture a lot lately and in response to my latest article, BC Civil Asset Forfeiture Office Proud to Steal From Mere Citizens, I received a email from Zoey DeGarmo asking if I would post an information graphic on my website. The infographic, created by ArrestRecords.com, goes into great detail of the abuses of civil asset forfeiture laws across … [Read more...]
BC Civil Asset Forfeiture Office Proud to Steal From Mere Citizens
My wife, bless her heart, cuts out articles from the newspaper for me. I'm sure she thinks she's doing me a favour, but most of the time the articles she cuts out just make my blood boil, such as the article she cut out for me the other day titled "BC Forfeiture Office Defends Its Record" by Ian Mulgrew. In Mulgrew's article the head of of BC's Civil Asset Forfeiture … [Read more...]
Minnesota’s Courageous Reform of Civil Asset Foreiture Law
Five years ago scandal over the horrific abuse of Minnesota's civil asset forfeiture law rocked the state. Their Metro Gang Strike Force (disbanded in the wake of the scandal) among others, grossly abused the power given them by the state's civil forfeiture legislation, giving way to these reforms. The Metro Gang Strike Force didn't care who they stole from. Anyone was fair … [Read more...]
Common Sense Finally Prevails in Russ Caswell’s Civil Forfeiture Nightmare
Russ Caswell, now 70, spent the last two years fighting local, state and federal agencies over who owns Motel Caswell, the motel owned by his family since 1955. I first wrote about Russ Caswell and his civil asset forfeiture nightmare on July 1, 2012 when his case broke internationally. From that article: It is now, like many older motels across the nation, home to … [Read more...]
Canadian Constitution Foundation comes to Montague Family’s aid
The Canadian Constitution Foundation (CCF) will take on Bruce & Donna Montague’s case after Doug Christie’s death left them without counsel to fight property forfeiture under Ontario's Civil Forfeiture Law. The Canadian Constitution Foundation (http://www.theccf.ca) announced today that it would provide legal counsel to Bruce and Donna Montague of Dryden, Ontario in … [Read more...]
Poorly-Written Laws Are Criminal by Jane Gaffin
"To maintain the ascendancy of the Constitution over the lawmaking majority is the great and essential point on which the success of (any nation’s) system must depend; unless that ascendancy can be preserved, the necessary consequence must be that the laws will supersede the Constitution; and, finally, the will of the Executive, by influence of its patronage, will supersede the … [Read more...]
The ongoing abuse of Civil Asset Forfeiture Laws
When policing devolves from solving crimes to seeing how much private property police can seize from citizens there is something very wrong with the focus of our nation, yet under civil forfeiture laws this is precisely what’s happening across Canada and the United States. Like most laws, civil asset forfeiture has, at its heart, good intentions. As the saying goes, … [Read more...]
Katey Montague’s new video on the Ontario Govt’s Seizure of Family Home
UPDATE: Thankfully, but for reasons nobody understands, the Ontario Government dropped its civil forfeiture action against the Montague family home. Katey Montague, the daughter of former Ontario gunsmith Bruce Montague, just released another video update on the decision by the Ontario Government to steal the Montague family home using Ontario's Civil Remedies … [Read more...]