WHITEHORSE, Yukon, Kanuckistan -- David Lind is uncertain how he will vote in the forthcoming federal election but for darned sure he won't be supporting the Liberals.

And neither would any self-respecting Canadian who had endured the trauma that the Liberal government's laws unleashed against the Lind family.

The 39-year-old Alberta businessman, who with his wife, Amanda, manufactures tactical gear, is still frothing over the spun-out-of-control police who sandbagged his family due to an unreasonable Firearms Act that makes criminals out of otherwise law-abiding citizens and grants police excessive discretionary power to enforce a law they don't even understand.

Until four years ago, the Linds had viewed policemen as public guardians who keep communities safe from thugs and career criminals.

"After what happened, my children are not going to think favorably of the police," declared Lind by phone from his home in Okotoks, Alberta. A policeman would be the last person his children would approach for assistance.

The Linds' nightmare began near Swift Current, Saskatchewan, on the Easter weekend of April, 2000.

Early Good Friday morning, Lind, his wife, their two children, his parents and the family pets departed Kenora, Ontario.

Work had been patchy for the heavy-equipment operator, who had been running a legal, home-based gun dealership. When the Linds lost their home, the elder Mr. Lind sold a pickup truck. The tags and insurance were legally transferred temporarily to a recently-purchased yellow school bus. Seats were removed from the back half and the vehicle was packed to the gunwales with personal belongings.

The bus was permitted for their cross-country journey. They were westbound toward hope and a fresh start in Alberta, a province hosting a favorable climate toward business and gun owners.

Near Swift Current, the bus grew thirsty. It was about 2 a.m. when they spotted the lights of a convenience store and gas pumps on the other side of a chain-link fence dividing the four lanes of the Trans Canada Highway.

Where the fence ended, Lind turned the bus onto a service road. A police cruiser pulled over in his lane and followed. The lights and siren were not engaged. Some distance back from where Lind parked, the cruiser pulled over and parked,too.

Perfect. "If anybody knows how to get to a gas station, it should be the police," suggested Mrs. Lind. "Why don't we ask them?"

Lind approached the cruiser on foot. Two RCMP officers emerged. "Are you David Lind?" asked Const. Joseph Alie in a thick French accent. He did not speak good English.

When Lind confirmed his identity, Alie shackled his wrists tightly. Behind Lind, the other Frenchman, Const. Rick Patenaude, cut the safety chain that secured Lind's wallet to his belt.

Alie roughly picked up the average-sized Lind by the handcuffs until his feet dangled free of the ground. He shoved his prisoner into the cruiser's back seat.

Lind is a strong-minded, peaceable, freedom-loving family man who served 10 years in the Canadian military. He had never committed a crime in the past and at the relevant time had not contemplated one in the future. He had no criminal record and did not associate with those who did--although the police accused him of such despite the constitution stating an individual has the freedom to associate with any person he chooses.

"Do you have any illegal handguns on board?" one badge-bearing bully growled. "No," answered Lind, truthfully. "But I do have handguns."

There was a break down in communication. The French officers accepted his initial response to be a lie and that he changed his mind and came clean. Lind meant he did not have any "illegal" guns on board as the police assumed but did have "legal" guns, yes.

The gun owner was well-papered and legally documented to possess and transport the bus, firearms, the accoutrements for shooting and re-loading ammo.

The officers did not ask to see Lind's driver's licence, vehicle registration, pink insurance card nor any firearms certificates or registration numbers. They ignored his repeated offers to show them documentation that was contained inside a briefcase behind the bus's driver's seat.

At trial, both officers testified falsely they had found no papers when rummaging the glove box. No wonder. The bus was not equipped with a glove box.

Neither had the police checked to see if there were other occupants on board. They were surprised to see the attractive Amanda Lind come forward to ask why her husband was arrested. The paranoic police wanted to see her hands. She put them up in the air.

They pulled her top up over her head, feeling and patting, until she protested the roadside strip search went on too long. Later, they abused their powers by pawing the eight-year-old daughter. The officers only demeaned the elder Mrs. Lind by pawing her handbag.

They did not bother searching the six-year-old son nor the elder Mr. Lind--although some of the guns on board belonged to him.

The two Frenchmen told the court that Lind was under surveillance due to a message dispatched from the Canadian Police Information Centre which CPIC received from the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) at Kenora. The report evidently originated from an anonymous hand-wringing squealer who observed the Linds loading a bus with containers that looked "suspiciously" like guns. Oh, my gawd! And lots of them, too!

Const. Patenaude said the standard practice of a CPIC message was to advise members of officer safety issues. "You often see stuff like the person is a known police hater and he's operating a vehicle and he's travelling this way. You should be aware."

The tacky procedure the officers used to "investigate" the grossly-incorrect CPIC message left Saskatchewan Judge G.B. Shaner perplexed.

The notice read: "David Lind MAY be carrying five 50-calibre rifles with tripods and scopes, 6,000 rounds of 50-calibre ammunition as well as 10 to 12 handguns. These 50-calibre weapons MAY be single shot and LEGAL.

"He is operating an old school bus with Ontario licence plate which is not registered to the vehicle, but is in the name of Albert Lind. The firearms MAY be hidden in the panels of the bus.

"Lind has had previous contact with outlaw motorcycle guns in Manitoba. He is A REGISTERED FIREARM COLLECTOR. He has three firearms legally registered to him. If stopped please advise detective Harty or detective Hill of particulars."

The two Frenchmen called in three officers for on-the-scene backup; members of an emergency response team lurked in the ditches, behind culverts and in the weeds.

Cpl. Robert Wayne Johnston was brought from his bed to take command. He arranged for the occupants to be taken off the bus and housed in a motel; the bylaw officer was called to take the parrot and four large dogs to the animal pound.

Const. Patenaude drove Lind to the Swift Current detachment, booked him and threw him in a cell where he was incarcerated for upwards of 14 hours. The police would not charge him until the bus was searched.

This was not exactly an urgent circumstance which precluded the police from securing a search warrant first. But they were in charge and too cocky to believe they needed to obtain a warrant from a judge.

One backup officer had "claimed" to have expertise in the transportation of dangerous goods (at trial he admitted to not knowing the laws), which the police wrongly assumed was 6,000 rounds of ammunition and were fearful it would DETONATE!

The trial judge wrote in his decision: "(This) circumstance had not been proven at this point. And, in fact, it was only suspected by the Ontario police officers and which, in the end, was not the case."

The bus was driven to the city centre and parked behind the police detachment to be searched. If the bus was going to explode, this was not a safe place to bring it, the judge reprimanded.

Neither firefighters and other emergency crews were called to stand by, and the near-by residents were not evacuated from their homes during this Keystone Kop exercise.

Since the large vehicle wouldn't fit into a garage bay (the two French officers wrongly testified the bus was inside), the packed goods were removed and strewn over the parking lot that was unprotected from the elements.

Both French officers went off shift at 7 a.m. without worries. They bequeathed the mess they created to others. Cpl. Johnston began to wonder if there might be validity to what his prisoner was telling him.

He contacted an Ontario policeman who ran a check. Glory be! The staff sergeant advised Johnston that Lind indeed was telling the truth. He was legal to the letter of the law. He could own and transport all personal items the Swift Current jackasses said he couldn't.

The corporal halted the bus search halfway through. Although he had assumed it would be fruitless to call a justice of the peace on an Easter weekend to request a search warrant, the trial judge noted that once the police were ready to release Lind from jail, a JP attended promptly to set bail conditions.

Then the police were forced to lay trumped-up charges to cover their own sorry asses against a "false arrest" lawsuit, or worse, and the burden was placed on Lind to hire a defence lawyer and return to Swift Current for trial five months hence.

The trial judge wrote, "Advice by one officer to another that someone MAY BE doing something is not sufficient grounds for either arrest or search."

He added that no exigent circumstances existed, therefore the police needed a search warrant to proceed pawing through the family's personal belongings.

The judge found a very serious violation of the accused's Charter of Rights: "Everybody has the right to be secure against unreasonable search or seizure."

Additionally, any evidence obtained in a manner that infringes or denies any rights or freedoms which are guaranteed by the Charter must come into play to ensure the good repute of the administration of justice. "The evidence must be and is hereby excluded pursuant to section 24(2)," the judge wrote.

The main reason the bus was stopped was to DETERMINE whether the guns and ammunition were in fact on board, "which was not an offence," the judge advised.

After the case was dismissed in November, 2000, the Swift Current police delivered the guns back to Lind in Alberta.

But not one of those government-paid hombres suffered a demotion, firing, suspension without pay or any other inconveniences for committing state crimes against decent citizens who were left with burden of proof as to their innocence.

Oh, as a matter of interest, the corporal received a commendation for his "good work" on this case. If his work was so good, why did he have to lay bogus charges against Lind?

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Copyright 2004 diArmani.com