WHITEHORSE, YUKON - "One's home is one's castle," a defence lawyer told the territorial court during a failed attempt to quash a search warrant concocted by the police to raid Allen Carlos' home.

"Owners of firearms deserve the same respect as any other citizen," added Edmonton-based Richard Fritze, who specializes in firearms cases.

There was a big demand for his business cards from a legion of Carlos supporters who packed the courtroom for two-and-a-half days to hear the trial.

Carlos, a well-known Whitehorse-based mineral prospector, pleaded not guilty to three counts filed by the RCMP on February 29, 2000.

The charges pertain to storage of firearms under Section 86 of the Criminal Code, which has been changed to reflect new laws flowing from the contentious C-68 firearms act.

However, the four plainclothes police officers, who barged into Carlos' private dwelling on February 15, 2000, didn't have the right to be there in the first place.

The police were on a fishing trip based on an unsubstantiated story.

When they invaded his house, they found and seized his valuable gun collection.

Carlos lawfully owns the guns, and has dutifully registered them with the police for many years in order to obtain permits to carry handguns in the bush for his prospecting work.

Carlos holds grandfather rights to own weapons which have been recently categorized as "prohibited" or "restricted".

As was pointed out in court, the Criminal Code provides for a person to keep loaded weapons in the house as a means of protecting priv ate property and family from intruders.

Break and entries, theft and property damage are on the rise in the Yukon. According to Ottawa's statistics, the territory has the highest crime rate in Canada.

However, Carlos was charged with offences arising from execution of a flimsy warrant cooked up in a backroom between a complainant and the cops.

Because the warrant is not part of charges, Carlos does not have the opportunity to face his accuser in court, as used to be the way justice was served.

Until Sandra Orban's name was revealed for the court record, she was cloaked in secrecy as an "unascertained" person.

The police shouldn't have been in Carlos' house. But they were. So what happened to our property rights? What happened to the day when our private lives were private without the state's encroachment?

A man's house used to be his castle. Now it's open season for the police and inspectors to walk in and take what they want.

In some circumstances, search warrants aren't even needed; a piece of paper signed by a judge looks official.

These gung-ho cops who cannot remember the past are going to be condemned to repeat it.

Historical accounts relate countless crimes the state has committed against property.

The Nazis, among others, would order the police to make surprise visits to a house in the middle of the night, kick in the door and seize the valuables. During the war trials, the police were held accountable for their actions and executed.

RCMP Const. Wayne Gork, who led the raid, was receiving direction from the more experienced Cpl. Frank Campbell.

Both were withesses for the Crown.

Gork, an instructor and purported firearms ace, had told the court he had unloaded five cartridges from the Ruger Super Blackhawk.

The high-calibre handgun was among the collection Carlos kept in a locked safe which is designated and designed for storage of arms and ammunition.

The number one rule is to treat any gun as though it's loaded, especially when you know it is. You don't wrestle it.

The Ruger is a common type gun. Anybody with firearms savvy would know instinctively how to load and unload it.

Gork, who was not familiar with this specific gun, was handling it in a very dangerous manner. He admitted under cross examination that Carlos had to unload the gun.

He had convinced himself that Carlos was a threat to public safety. Of course, public safety is the RCMP's mandate, a number one priority.

However, it has absolutely zippo to do with the subsequent charges regarding storage infractions of loaded weapons in Carlos' private dwelling.

While the defence lawyer was challenging the validity of the warrant, it came to light that public safety took a back seat to vacations, shift rotations and "whatnot".

Gork's concern for public safety was not speedy. It stretched from January, 1999 to February 14, 2000.

In other words, it took Gork more than a year to get around to drafting a search warrant with assistance from Campbell et al and requesting the signature of territorial judge Heino Lilles.

Defence lawyer Fritze submitted that Lilles should not have have signed it.

Under cross-examination, Gork testified that Lilles never inquired about the identity, character or motive of the person whose complaint generated the warrant.

During Fritze's attempt to quash the warrant, he revealed the person cloaked in anonymity is Sandra Orban, a federal mining land-use inspector.

It also was disclosed, for the record, that the police had talked to "Hugh Copeland and others" who did not feel at all threatened by Carlos.

Copeland is the federal engineer of mines. "Others" refers to a male mining land-use inspector working in the Elijah Smith Building (known locally as Red Square.)

Yet the police went ahead with a warrant, which is supposed to be squeaky clean and above reproach.

Lilles authorized the warrant on the basis of an "unascertained" person.

The nature of Orban's complaint and what transpired was not examined in these incomplete proceedings. Hopefully, it will be addressed in more detail in the written submissions (or someplace).

Carlos' gun-related charges flow from a piece of legislation that reverses the democratic principles of justice. The accused is guilty until he/she can prove their innocence.

As has been demonstrated with this case, accusations can be so flimsy that it is next to impossible to prove innocence.

Therefore, the public should not assume the accused is guilty of any wrongdoings just because storage charges were laid.

It's the legislation that is wrong for allowing such despicable acts to be perpetrated against law-abiding citizens.

It was disclosed that two of the four officers were puzzled as to the purpose of this debacle, which set up Carlos as an example for other gun owners. (They'd better walk the straight and narrow).

The controversial gun-registration program, which has been misrepresented by Ottawa as a method to reduce violent crime, is really a system designed to give police access to a database and hand pick their next victim for a raid.

Deputy judge Deborah Livingstone warned Fritze that a "raid" is not a "raid". It is called "executing the warrant".

Three of the four officers who "executed the warrant" were trained members of an emergency response team. They proceeded on the assumption this was a "potentially" dangerous situation that could "escalate into a standoff".

They forced their way inside the door of the Carlos house, which is located in a nice neighborhood and flanked by houses owned by judges, lawyers, geologists and other professionals.

The police were standing inside the foyer. But Mrs. Carlos refused to allow them to parade around her immaculate house until they removed their muddy boots. They complied, continuing the raid in their stocking feet.

This situation was so potentially dangerous, the officers forgot to find out who was in the household before they barged in.

Neither Gork nor Campbell could tell the court the name of a strapping young fellow who was inside the house, and what he was doing there.

Despite the three days reserved to hear the case, time prevented the trial from finishing.

Livingstone, a federal circuit judge who presides in Ontario, was parachuted in as a deputy judge to hear this case before the territorial court on July 26, 27 and 28, 2000.

A casual observer does not understand the cat-and-mouse games that transpire between the judge and the Crown prosecutor and/or the defence lawyer.

What was very discernible was a highly-respected citizen and family man shouldn't have been sitting at the defence table trying to ward off indictable offences that can carry jail time.

Yet, there sat Carlos with his fate pivoting on the judge's plane ticket. Livingstone blamed the time constraints on Fritze.

Based on available information prior to his coming from Edmonton to Whitehorse, he believed the case could probably be heard in two days. Most of the first day was taken up with procedural matters and a half dozen recesses.

Yet Livingstone had advised from the outset, the court would sit for two days only. Her term ended in Whitehorse on Friday, July 28.

The trial had to be compressed because of her commitments to go home to Ontario. "Due to time limitations" was a shop-worn phrase the judge reiterated numerous times throughout the proceedings.

She was not impressed to be forced into a Friday morning sitting. The judge frustrated Fritze, and he was making her angry.

She often noted failure to understand how his material was relevant. "Mr. Fritze, I don't want to tell you how to present your case," she would say, then would rule against his line of questioning.

When he had to outline his strategy, she would tell the Crown prosecutor David McWhinnie how she expected him to argue a certain point when he had the floor.

On the last morning, Fritze brought forth an impromptu expert witness who stood in the witness box while the judge and the lawyer argued. The judge ruled against hearing from ex-RCMP officer Ken Gabb.

The clock ran out about 1 p.m. Fritze and the Crown prosecutor had to submit written final arguments and responses to the judge in Ontario.

Not only should justice be done but it also should be seen to be done.

And denying the public the right to hear the case didn't look good.

A judge running away from from a criminal case before it was finished would be unheard of in Ontario, where Livingstone presides, or in Alberta where Fritze practices.

But certain procedural matters are allowed in this jurisdiction because of "remoteness" and because somebody said so.

This is justice served up Yukon style.

However, only a fool tries to out-judge a judge. Carlos was acquitted on all counts; the Crown appealed, acquitted again; Crown appealed again to the Supreme Court of Canada for a hearing on April 17, 2002. (See forthcoming article "Dodging Shrapnel of War on Words with Supreme Court).

A trust fund for Allen Carlos has been set up at the Bank of Montreal, Whitehorse. All donations to account number 8075-985 will be gratefully accepted. For more information, please phone Paul Rogan, president of Responsible Firearms Owners Coalition, Whitehorse, 1-867-668-5609 or e-mail him at firearms@yukon.net.

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Copyright 2004 diArmani.com