The headline says it all: “Stop reporting vaccine mandates as ‘extortion’: Toronto Police.”

When did this unidentified Toronto Police “spokesperson” become a Judge? What case law is the Toronto Police Service relying on to make this bold statement?

The Toronto Police Service has no authority to decide: 1) without any supporting case law, that an offence does not meet the elements of the offence 2) if and when a peace officer lays a charge.

Every peace officer is an independent agent of the crown. Every peace officer has discretion. In fact, this discretion, is part of their duty. A peace officer is a public officer and not an agent of the state or government.

The rule of law (which is essential for democracy) requires that the Criminal Code applies equally to everyone, regardless of their position in society.

The Supreme Court of Canada made some comments in R. v. Campbell. “A police officer investigating a crime occupies a public office initially defined by the common law and subsequently set out in various statutes and is not acting as a government functionary or as an agent”

The definition of extortion under the Criminal Code of Canada is as follows:

Extortion

346 (1) Every one commits extortion who, without reasonable justification or excuse and with intent to obtain anything, by threats, accusations, menaces or violence induces or attempts to induce any person, whether or not he is the person threatened, accused or menaced or to whom violence is shown, to do anything or cause anything to be done.

Each and every individual officer will have to decide if they have reasonable and probable grounds to believe the offence of extortion has been committed. It is not a ruling that any police service in Canada can make without the input from case law on the matter.

Perhaps the reason the Toronto Police Service doesn’t want to allow officer’s to use their own discretion is because they’re afraid they will be the next organization charged ?

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