Originally Posted By: ireckon
Originally Posted By: dougwalkabout

A slightly more informative article from the Edmonton Journal, with a little more raw detail: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Edmonton+police+after+concealed+knives/5243698/story.html

Note this salient point from the news conference: "He cautioned that the renewed focus on knives won’t impinge on the right of law-abiding citizens to carry knives or other tools for a legitimate purpose."


There's too much wiggle room there, and they know it. The words "for a legitimate purpose" are unnecessary and leave prosecution wide up for discretion. Either you make a certain instrument illegal or you don't. You don't muddy the waters by adding superfluous language. If you want to criminalize the behavior, then you criminalize the behavior. For example, you make stabbing someone with a knife illegal outside of self-defense. (There are already laws against doing that.) A civilized society cannot be both civilized and have laws that are wide open for interpretation.

The problem here is that the government (including law enforcement) wants the easy way out. They can't (or are too lazy to) enforce the laws that are ALREADY THERE.



First, thanks to Doug for his post. I agree that the originating newspaper website link is hardly considered as a reliable source.

As for the whole knives argument here in Canada, there is very lengthy thread here from a couple of years ago. In summary, the LEO's up here use great discretion when it comes to interpreting the knife laws and if you are not viewed as a deadbeat type of person and don't have a criminal record then they will leave you alone..
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