Tough On Crime

Tories propose Criminal Code fixes

Rules for fingerprinting, prizefighting among 'modernizations' to law

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson proposed a grab bag of changes to the Criminal Code on Friday, from allowing police to fingerprint suspects before charging them, to rewriting an outdated ban on prizefighting because it technically outlaws martial arts such as tae kwon do, judo and karate.

The proposed "modernization" legislation, the outcome of discussions with the provinces and territories, contains 40 amendments to Canadian law.

The bill also proposes creating a new crime to help stop individuals from fleeing from province to province to avoid prosecution and provide police with greater access to "telewarrants" so that they can phone a justice of the peace to obtain quick authority for search and seizure instead of making a request in person.

"Crime is constantly evolving in Canada, so it is crucial that our criminal justice system evolves with it," Nicholson said Friday in a statement.

Nicholson's spokesman, Darren Eke, said that fingerprinting and photographing arrested suspects, a move designed to speed up the process at the police station, will only happen to those on the verge of being charged with indictable offences, which are Canada's most serious charges, comparable to U.S. felonies.

"This isn't a kid in a candy store stealing a chocolate bar," said Eke.

The bill proposes to change the Identification of Criminals Act, which does not currently authorize police to fingerprint or photograph individuals in custody until they are charged or convicted.

Suspects who are subsequently not charged or convicted can formally ask police to destroy the information, a process that already exists for people who are charged but later cleared, he said.

There is no law, however, that require authorities to comply with requests.

Anne-Marie Hayden, a spokeswoman for the federal privacy commissioner's office, said she has not seen the fingerprinting measures, and would like to know more before commenting.

"It is definitely something we would be interested in looking at," said Hayden.

"Issues surrounding fingerprinting and any kind of new collection of personal information is something that we want to pay close attention to."

The bill also addresses a long-standing complaint in some provinces that the prizefighting ban in the Criminal Code, dating to Victorian times, technically outlaws tae kwon do, judo and karate, which are Olympic sports.

The proposed legislation would exempt "amateur combative sports" from the prizefighting offence, which is defined as an "encounter or fight with fists or hands between two people who have met for that purpose."

The only exemption that currently exists is for boxing.

"The amendments would also permit a province to decide whether to expand the list of sports permitted to take place within that province and authorize specific contests," the Justice Department said in a news release.

Another element of the bill would make it easier for people to hire non-lawyers -- or agents -- for legal problems that do not require a full-fledged member of the bar.