Dealer gets his TV dishes back!!!

[ekati]

Dealer gets his TV dishes back (http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/TorontoSun/News/2003/06/12/109069.html)

By SAM PAZZANO, COURTS BUREAU



A Toronto satellite TV distributor has succeeded in forcing Ottawa to return $250,000 worth of American DirecTV and other equipment seized by Canada Customs. The merchandise, owned by Incredible Electronics, of Toronto, was seized in Sarnia on Feb. 12 and Fort Erie on Feb. 23 by Canada Customs on the grounds that it's illegal to decode foreign signals in Canada. But David Fuss, who owns and operates Incredible Electronics, sued the government to get the goods returned.

The two sides in the case, who were awaiting a judgment on the issue, reached an out-of-court settlement last week in which the federal government agreed to return the equipment, Fuss' lawyer, Alan Gold said yesterday.

"I'm delighted that the federal government can tell the difference between satellite systems and heroin," Gold said, noting that federal lawyer Alnoor Meghani compared possessing the satellite equipment to possession of heroin during his court arguments two months ago.

Fuss says he sells his DirecTV and Dishnet units in the U.S. and Caribbean, where they are legal

[gunsmoke2]

Unfortunately they forced David to pay legal fees to get back the equipement. They know it was an unlawful seizure but they don't care anyway. This is I think the third time for David where seized goods were returned.


But what about if they do it against someone else who simply can't afford lawyer expenses ?


Way to go David and Allan ! they knew they were wrong and wanted to avoid a decision that would have hurt them and help us maybe so they settled.


GS2

[RiseStar]

How can they continually seize equipment knowing that they had to return it before?

Somewhere along the line they have to be held accountable do they not?

[Latinos]

Good job incredible,

[Eightball]

Awesome News Dave!
Way to go!

[Latinos]

Bell order the goverment to go after dave, and the goverment end up looking like a fool,best of luck to you dave (you should sue the goverment for the cost)

[Dean_M_Love]

... I guess the big question is did he need to sign away his rights to get the stuff back, or is he open to pursue whatever recourse he feel appropriate...

[gunsmoke2]

How can they continually seize equipment knowing that they had to return it before?

Well they go to court and argue they had the right. They saw they were going to lose and the comment by the judge " so you consider this the same as herion? " I think was meant as saying you got to be kidding


Somewhere along the line they have to be held accountable do they not?


As Dean said the agreement might have included that David agreed not file suit.


GS2

[To The Real King!!]

Hi Guys,

This is getting a little hard to take now with 3 seizures and each one had to be given back. I believe that there must be some action that Dave could take now if they ever do it again.. Certainly a seizure would never hold for him.

Congratulations Dave, I am sure you know just how very important this ruling is.http://www.legal-rights.org/images/ttrk.gif
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Thanks & Good Luck ,

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[incredible]

Thanks, We hope this is the first win in a series, of wins.
We are expecting a 490 application concerning the cards from
Directv. But we have some surprises for them, so hopefully we can set a precedent for our side. I really have to thank Alan Gold, because he made the prosecutor look like an Bell puppet!

[ELF-CO]

incredible, any chance of a transscript of the proceedings? :cool:

[gunsmoke2]

But we have some surprises for them


Hehe.. I can just imagine ;) wonder why they didn't make a 490 application for the DTV cards I bought from the Canadian Government :)



GS2

[RiseStar]

They ARE puppets, through and through.

The "American satellite is heroin" comments by the prosecutor was particularily brilliant. I take it that that arguement did not go over big with the judge. It just goes to show independant judges how ridiculous their position is. Last time I checked, no kids on the playground were dying from smoking HBO. Its one thing to use that arguement to some reporter that knows no better and its something entirely different to try and convince a judge of that. It must be tough for these feds, being in provincial court where the judges aren't on the payroll.

Really, this country and its federal leadership is sick. What other country in the world spends millions and millions of taxpayers money defending the private interests of a Billion dollar a year company?

I can only hope that when Paul Martin leaves his boot print on Manleys tush in the fall that he will seriously start cleaning up that federal corruption because its getting out of hand.

Originally posted by incredible
Thanks, We hope this is the first win in a series, of wins.
We are expecting a 490 application concerning the cards from
Directv. But we have some surprises for them, so hopefully we can set a precedent for our side. I really have to thank Alan Gold, because he made the prosecutor look like an Bell puppet!

[legal one]

Hi folks

READ very carefully

The two sides in the case, who were awaiting a judgment on the issue, reached an out-of-court settlement last week in which the federal government agreed to return the equipment, Fuss' lawyer, Alan Gold said yesterday.


I submit that nothing was really settled. Its all about the money.
Incredible still had to pay the costs and sign away his right for further litigation.

Smell the coffee boys.

All the best

[Jeet]

The fact that the Crown even agreed to release the goods demonstrates that even the Crown does not consider them to similiar to heroin. When was the last time a heroin dealer was able to reach an out of court settlement to get his heroin back?

[incredible]

We did NOT sign any releases, the 90 day detention order came and went, and the Crown was unlikely to get an extention.
So they agreed to give it back.

[Dean_M_Love]

...and no charges?

[incredible]

If there were charges, they would hold the systems as evidence.
SO No Charges. When we had our hearing they said that charges were probably not going to be filed, so that was why they compared it to Heroin!

[Dean_M_Love]

seized with a warrant or without?

[gunsmoke2]

I understand they seized it with NO warrant.



GS2

[incredible]

First seizure was RCMP acting without a warrant, Then they tried to say it was on behalf of customs. Second seizure was customs on behalf of Peter Allen of Industry Canada. Sgt Paul McIssac of New Market RCMP was involved in both. When we had our application it turned out that his affidavitt contained inaccuracies as he said he saw things that turned out to be what he was told by other officers.
They claimed that they followed Satan's playhouse employee to us and he purchased 12 boxes, some of which said RCA, and were the size of satellite systems but it was second room install kits & single lnb dishes.

[Dean_M_Love]

...should you ever need it, we have case law here in Manitoba that says seizing the systems without a warrant at the border is a breach of the charter...(not 2b issues, just search & seizure)

[incredible]

Thanks!!!