In July 2019, the Vancouver police announced that they had broken up a multimillion-dollar drug operation. This came after they raided two warehouse laboratories in South Vancouver, which were allegedly making illegal cannabis extracts. Sgt. Steve Addison said that these labs were large and sophisticated, presenting a significant risk to the public. Thousands of pounds of drugs, including cannabis extracts, balms, and edibles were seized during the raids.
After these events, the B.C.’s Director of Civil Forfeiture filed a lawsuit in October 2021 to seize the warehouses as “proceeds and instruments of unlawful activity.” This raised issues that could impact the province’s controversial civil forfeiture regime. A B.C. Supreme Court judge ruled that part of the act governing the process was inconsistent with Canada’s Charter and needed to be tested for “reasonable limits.”
Critics have claimed that B.C.’s civil forfeiture system is problematic. This allows the government to seize property linked to criminal activity, even when the owner has not been convicted. Criminal forfeiture requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt, while civil forfeiture falls under a lower bar of civil liability. Even with these issues, the forfeiture office looked to collect bank account information from the warehouse unit’s owners, raising constitutional objections.
These issues came up in a case involving Scott McDermid and Leslie Ann McDermid. A judge ruled that the search provision of the act was “overly broad” and had very intrusive searches. These aspects were inconsistent with the Charter and lacked procedural safeguards. The government defended civil forfeiture, but legal observers and critics have praised the McDermid case’s significance.