• Canada - Man fined $5,200 Canadian ($5242.8868 USD) for growing cucumbers in the basement
    50 replies, posted
[Release] Mission, British Columbia There's no way Len Gratto is paying a $5,200 fine to Mission city hall for growing cucumbers in his basement. Gratto - a 67-year-old who has lived for 30 years with his wife in their Mission home - says he's raring to join an imminent class-action lawsuit attacking the municipality's grow-op bylaw inspections. A number of citizens, led by Mission man Stacy Gowanlock, will allege their homes were illegally searched for pot grow-ops and they were slapped with fees and repair orders costing upward of $10,000 - all on questionable evidence. Gratto says he's never grown pot, but "laughable" evidence against him consists of pictures of some "dirt" on the basement wall and "a furnace pipe going up into the chimney, where it should be." "It's upsetting they can do this," Gratto said. "We were growing cucumbers in the basement because they wouldn't take outside." Gowanlock said he was searched in 2009 and hit with thousands in fees and repair orders despite never growing pot in his home. A lawyer could be filing his civil suit within days, he said. "I'm going to be the one that steps forward," he said. "It's the whole process. You're violating people's rights." And in a move that could potentially alter the landscape of drug enforcement in B.C., the B.C. Civil Liberties Association says it will join the battle against Mission but widen the focus into a region-wide challenge to "home grow-op bylaws." Grow-op bylaw programs, which are based on provincial legislation, allow municipal inspectors to enter homes with abnormally high hydro usage - about 93 kilowatts per day or more - and look for evidence of illegal marijuana grow-ops for public safety reasons. Inspectors don't have to find grow-ops, but if they find supposed residual evidence, such as high mould readings, they levy search fees and order repairs. If homeowners don't comply, homes are tagged under the bylaw and effectively condemned as unsafe, and unsellable. According to proponents, the bylaws have been phenomenally successful in driving pot production out of the Lower Mainland. In mid-December, the BCCLA's Micheal Vonn led a delegation to Mission's council, warning grounds for a class-action suit are strong, and searches are "putting innocent people under horrible duress." David Eby of the BCCLA says council was not receptive and has not responded. Even if the promised citizen-led action against Mission fell apart, the BCCLA would then likely initiate its own case. "Our concern is the program is very poorly run, and there is no due process around these massive fines," Eby said. Mission chief administrative officer Glen Robertson said he would not comment on the allegations or threat of litigation. Documents released to The Province under freedom of information law show Mission has drawn $1.43 million in revenue from Public Safety Inspection Team searches since 2008. From 2008 to 2010, there were 362 searches. In 177 cases, residents were found in contravention of the bylaw. Additionally, there were 98 RCMP grow-op inspections. Including both RCMP and PSIT searches, inspection fees of $5,200 were levied 275 times. Mission says its inspection program is revenue neutral, and paid back its startup costs by Dec. 31, 2009. Fees include funding for the RCMP, who monitor searches from the sidelines. Critics such as Gowanlock claim Mission's inspection funding scheme amounts to a "cash grab." Coun. Jenny Stevens says she initially supported the program, but now believes about half of homeowners inspected are innocent. "My biggest worry is about 50 per cent of these people were subjected to embarrassment and innuendo," she said. "I'm very concerned about the threat of litigation . . ." Mission Mayor James Atebe was unavailable for comment but told The Province in a report on this subject last November that he strongly supported the inspection program but was willing to improve it. "I don't want to lose the tool because it's imperfect," Atebe said. "Also, I don't want to keep the tool if it's encroaching on people's rights." Another current class-action suit against municipal grow-op bylaws is unfolding in Coquitlam. One of the litigants, Drew Smith, told The Province he is innocent, and his story is almost identical to the complaints made in Mission. His home was searched, no grow-op evidence was found, fees and repair orders were levied and an allegedly innocent person suffered a damaged reputation. "I had to get sedatives because I couldn't sleep at night with the stress and embarrassment in the neighbourhood," Smith said. "Financially, I don't care if I get a dime [in the Coquitlam class-action suit]," he said. "I told my lawyer I don't want to sue anyone but this is not a just process, and it has to stop." - Postmedia Network © Copyright (c) Abbotsford Times [/release] Cucumbers =/= weed Source: [url]http://www.abbotsfordtimes.com/news/Mission+homeowner+fined+growing+cucumbers/4086299/story.html#ixzz1AhFQWbNk[/url] Just look at the poor man's face [img]http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/5448/sadmanissad.png[/img] [editline]457374[/editline] :canada:
Cucumbers can be used for fun so of course the government bans them
As fucked up as it is, some of the searches that do happen here are... fucking stupid. Cops are just doing busy work at this point, they know how pointless it is to take down a grow op here, they know it's like a hydra, and how more keep popping up everytime someone goes down. But they keep doing this.
lol corruption
[quote]"My biggest worry is about 50 per cent of these people were subjected to embarrassment and innuendo," she said. "I'm very concerned about the threat of litigation . . ."[/quote] to :q: or not to :q: that is the question
[quote]Grow-op bylaw programs, which are based on provincial legislation, allow municipal inspectors to enter homes with abnormally high hydro usage - about 93 kilowatts per day or more - and look for evidence of illegal marijuana grow-ops for public safety reasons.[/quote] "He used 2000 litres? Good God almighty, we must stop this FIEND for the safety of the public!"
Don't worry there is a very logical legal argument here, growing space for cucumbers takes away potential space for maple trees.
Did a cucumber kill a maple tree's dog or something?
Fuck Canada.
[QUOTE=Tetracycline;27342476]Cucumbers can be used for fun[/QUOTE] kinky
[QUOTE=HeadshotDCS;27342945]Fuck Canada.[/QUOTE] Yeah fuck the entire country for these municipal bylaws!!!
Johnny would know first hand
canada's a fag anyway
[QUOTE=JohnnyMo1;27342989]kinky[/QUOTE] Have you ever tried breakfast sausage?
They should have one of those big photo ops where police officers pose in front of all the confiscated vegetables and shake the mayor's hand
[quote]"I had to get sedatives because I couldn't sleep at night with the stress and embarrassment in the neighbourhood," Smith said.[/quote] "[i]Hey, look! It's that CUCUMBER GUY![/i]
I had something similar to this happen a year and a half ago. I was running several supercomputers for a few weeks and that sent the power consumption through the roof and we got a call from BC Hydro asking why our consumption was so high. I ended up doing a self-audit and had to send in photographs of the systems as well as official SGI documentation that listed their power consumption. They couldn't actually drop by the house to inspect for some reason and I would assume there was red tape in the way. I know someone else who got almost the same treatment, but he was down in Alabama and was consuming twice what I was (I was doing ~2.8KWh (or about 67.5KW/day), he was doing something like 5KWh (beyond 120KW/day).
[quote="HeadshotDCS"]Fuck Canada.[/quote] Excuse me? Canada's the shit.
[QUOTE=FlopSauce;27343169]Excuse me? Canada's the shit.[/QUOTE] Obviously not There is a dumb municipal bylaw here We should just let the US annex us
[QUOTE=MIPS;27343140]I had something similar to this happen a year and a half ago. I was running several supercomputers for a few weeks and that sent the power consumption through the roof and we got a call from BC Hydro asking why our consumption was so high. I ended up doing a self-audit and had to send in photographs of the systems as well as official SGI documentation that listed their power consumption. They couldn't actually drop by the house to inspect for some reason and I would assume there was red tape in the way. I know someone else who got almost the same treatment, but he was down in Alabama and was consuming twice what I was (I was doing ~2.8KWh (or about 67.5KW/day), he was doing something like 5KWh (beyond 120KW/day).[/QUOTE] In the US, you're constitutionally protected from unwarranted search and seizures, and NOTHING illegally obtained would hold up in court. With the fourth amendment's protection, it's really unlikely that a law would be passed and be help up for such a stupid reason as "water usage."
Can we just legalize weed already so that this shit is no longer an issue? Jesus, I want my tax dollars and police efforts spent elsewhere.
[QUOTE=chewgo;27343196][highlight]In the US, you're constitutionally protected from unwarranted search and seizures[/highlight], and NOTHING illegally obtained would hold up in court. With the fourth amendment's protection, it's really unlikely that a law would be passed and be help up for such a stupid reason as "water usage."[/QUOTE] Then why are Homeowner's Associations allowed to poke around your property to make sure you're in compliance with their policies? It's because they make you sign away that right. Canada has the same protection from unreasonable search and seizures, but this township probably made people waive it somehow.
[QUOTE=Zeke129;27343236]Then why are Homeowner's Associations allowed to poke around your property to make sure you're in compliance with their policies? It's because they make you sign away that right. Canada has the same protection from unreasonable search and seizures, but this township probably made people waive it somehow.[/QUOTE] shit yo, that sucks.
[QUOTE=chewgo;27343196]In the US, you're constitutionally protected from unwarranted search and seizures, and NOTHING illegally obtained would hold up in court. With the fourth amendment's protection, it's really unlikely that a law would be passed and be help up for such a stupid reason as "water usage."[/QUOTE] He showed the police [url=http://techpubs.sgi.com/library/dynaweb_docs/hdwr/SGI_EndUser/books/Origin_3K_OG/sgi_html/figures/1-10.sgi3800.server.gif]his system[/url], they laughed, then left. Edit: I might be crazy to own supercomputers but his system takes the cake. Then again, he is the infamous [url=http://encyclopediadramatica.com/Dive]DiveFox.[/url]
[QUOTE=Zeke129;27343236]Then why are Homeowner's Associations allowed to poke around your property to make sure you're in compliance with their policies? It's because they make you sign away that right. Canada has the same protection from unreasonable search and seizures, but this township probably made people waive it somehow.[/QUOTE] They aren't, in most places they can be shot for attempting to illegally enter a property, all they are allowed to do is levy fines for what they can see from outside the property, which limits them to only what they can see from peeking over a fence or gate
that's a lot of cents
I live in the same town as him and I do have to say its complete shit. I mean I live in the middle class and drug deals still go on right outside my house. Don't even get my started on how many stoners and dealers live here its just insanely stupid. Forgot to mention the amount of actual grow-ops in this town is also insane.
[QUOTE=Tetracycline;27342476]Cucumbers can be used for fun so of course the government bans them[/QUOTE] They don't work as well as you think they do.
War on drugs. Everybody loses.
[QUOTE=gamefreek76;27343994]War on drugs. Everybody loses.[/QUOTE] Well not everybody. Some people get to feel morally superior at the expense of everybody else, must be nice.
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