Via CBC, an unsurprising development, at least for those of us who’ve been following the meanderings of the various right-wing loons of this land:
Yeah, surprise, it’s precisely the same thing as happened on a larger scale in the US Capitol a few days ago: It’s motherfucking TREASON. Fueled, as you may have imagined, by a gross misunderstanding of the concept of “citizen’s arrest”. No, you don’t get to do it to public figures you dislike; only to fugitives fleeing from the scene of an actual crime. And no, your FEELINGS that those political figures were criminals don’t count, either. But don’t take MY word for it; here’s our Criminal Code on the subject:
In most cases, you must find a person either in the act of committing a crime, or escaping from and freshly pursued by persons who have lawful authority to arrest that person, in order to lawfully make a citizen’s arrest. In particular, if you are arresting a person for an indictable offence, which is the most serious type of offence and includes violent offences, you can only make the arrest at the time you witness the person committing the offence. It is against the law to arrest a person after any lapse in time for having committed an indictable offence, unless it is relation to your property.
Whoopsie. Guess Corey Hurren didn’t take THAT into account.
And no, Parliament Hill is NOT his property, either. Nor is Rideau Hall. It belongs to all of us. And the overwhelming majority of us, including those legally tasked with maintaining law and order, don’t agree that the PM or the Governor-General deserve to be arrested by some random Q-adjacent gun nut who’s just mad that he doesn’t get to play with as many assault rifles in his private time as his widdle heart desires.
Yes, members of Parliament, up to and including the Prime Minister, are NOT exempt from the law, and can be arrested if found to have committed a crime. Same goes for the Governor-General. But here’s the kicker: Only the police get to arrest them. And only with a warrant, as is the case for any criminal. If you don’t have one, and you try to stage a “citizen’s arrest” on a non-fugitive member of Parliament, then maybe the one deserving to be arrested is YOU.
