I wrote a three-part article in about the problem of civil remedies legislation. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court of Canada took a different view about the right of the provinces to seize and forfeit property that has a criminal taint to it, in Ontario under the Civil Remedies Act, 2001.
The case, in my view, was one of those ones where it is said bad cases make bad law. The precise issue before the court was whether or not the Province of Ontario could sieze and forfeit in excess of $29,000 cash seized from a young man in a car, without the person being prosecuted for a criminal offence and without any other proceedings being taken under the Criminal Code of Canada. I am now exploring this problem in another multi-part commentary.
