A vigilante Toronto grocer is launching a Charter challenge, arguing existing citizens’ arrest laws are unconstitutional and the charges of assault and forcible confinement he’s facing should be dropped.
In May, 2009, David Chen and two of the employees at his Chinatown supermarket pursued, tackled and bound a man caught on surveillance video stealing from the store earlier that day. After tying him up and keeping him in a delivery truck to await police, the three men were charged with assault, forcible confinement, kidnapping and concealing weapons (the latter two charges were later dropped).
Mr. Chen’s lawyer Peter Lindsay has contended that the charges against Mr. Chen and the two employees – Jie Chen and Qing Li – are baseless, and that the grocer was just trying to protect his property.
The victim in question, Anthony Bennett, has a 32-year criminal record and had been charged in connection with other petty Chinatown thefts. He was given a reduced sentence in relation to one of these charges because of his agreement to testify against Mr. Chen.
The Charter challenge launched Thursday claims that current limits on citizens’ arrest provisions are “unconstitutional and of no force or effect,” and violate Mr. Chen’s charter rights.
Mr. Lindsay has argued that the citizens’ arrest law, which allows someone to arrest without warrant someone in the act of committing a crime on that person’s property, should be extended to include crimes that have occurred in the recent past.
