Vancouver police and
B.C. police complaint commissioners
deliberately misinterpret the law

Section 494 of the Criminal Code of Canada, dealing with citizen’s arrest, is reproduced below.

Vancouver police Sgt. Ian Upton, Insp. Rollie Woods, B.C. deputy police complaint commissioner Bruce M. Brown and (former) police complaint commissioner Dirk Ryneveld all claim this part of the Criminal Code gives security guards the right to handcuff, detain (and by implication, assault) people on a public street when the security guards can explain their actions only with vague, contradictory allegations.

Upton, Woods, Brown and Ryneveld ignored the Criminal Code’s stipulations that the person arrested must be committing or have committed a criminal offence, or must be “escaping from and freshly pursued” for breaking the law, and that the people making the arrest need reasonable grounds to believe this is so.

None of those conditions apply in this case. The two security guards handcuffed and assaulted me while I was standing on a public sidewalk writing down one of their licence plate numbers.

They told police I was “suspicious.” That’s all. The allegation couldn’t be more vague or less substantiated. But according to Upton, Woods, Brown and Ryneveld that one word — “suspicious” — justifies a citizen’s arrest under Section 494 of the Criminal Code of Canada.

The two security guards also gave police wildly contradictory excuses for handcuffing me.

The security guards told police they handcuffed me because I consented to being handcuffed and because I wanted to fight them. Besides being false, those excuses are obviously contradictory.

Upton, Woods, Brown and Ryneveld ignored the fact that the security guards assaulted me by shoving me (handcuffed) to the ground, trying to smear my face into the pavement and then forcing me to kneel in a painful Gitmo stress position.

I have to conclude that Upton, Woods, Brown and Ryneveld deliberately misinterpreted the Criminal Code. The only other explanation would be that all four of them are extremely stupid in exactly the same way.

Upton, Woods, Brown and Ryneveld deliberately misinterpreted the Criminal Code to cover up for three Vancouver police officers (John Doduk badge number 2371, Anna Grigoletto 2069 and Jeffrey Dy 2308) who supported an illegal arrest and assault by two violent security guards.

Section 494 of the Criminal Code of Canada,
dealing with citizen’s arrest

Arrest without warrant by any person

494. (1) Any one may arrest without warrant

(a) a person whom he finds committing an indictable offence; or

(b) a person who, on reasonable grounds, he believes

(i) has committed a criminal offence, and

(ii) is escaping from and freshly pursued by persons who have lawful authority to arrest that person.

Arrest by owner, etc., of property

(2) Any one who is

(a) the owner or a person in lawful possession of property, or

(b) a person authorized by the owner or by a person in lawful possession of property,

may arrest without warrant a person whom he finds committing a criminal offence on or in relation to that property.

Delivery to peace officer

(3) Any one other than a peace officer who arrests a person without warrant shall forthwith deliver the person to a peace officer.

R.S., c. C-34, s. 449; R.S., c. 2(2nd Supp.), s. 5.