“While the court is clearly without jurisdiction to embark upon an independent investigation of scientific matters, the court is also without jurisdiction to order the government of British Columbia to expend funds to conduct particular scientific investigations of the flora and fauna of the Province.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Id<\/em>. at [12].\u00a0 The court also rejected\u00a0the plaintiff’s claim that the government’s action\/inaction violated his rights of free thought and speech, freedom from cruel and unusual\u00a0punishment and\u00a0equal protection\u00a0under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.\u00a0 As to freedom of expression,<\/p>\n“the government\u2019s non-acknowledgement of the sasquatch does not in any way prohibit or restrict the plaintiff\u2019s ability to express his thoughts, beliefs, and opinions regarding the sasquatch.\u00a0 Not revealing \u201cspecific locations where sasquatch sightings occur\u201d is the decision of the plaintiff, and in no way infringes upon his ability to espouse his beliefs regarding sasquatch existence. “<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Id<\/em>. at [15].\u00a0 As to “cruel and unusual punishment,”<\/p>\n“there is no overt exercise of provincial control over the plaintiff; inaction \u2014 in the sense of the Province not recognizing the existence of the sasquatch \u2014 is by no means an exertion of control over the plaintiff on the facts of this case. The plaintiff has not been prohibited by the Province from sharing his beliefs regarding the existence of the sasquatch, or from any other action. No facts have been pleaded that amount to ‘treatment’ …\u00a0let alone ‘punishment’ that would outrage standards of decency.\u00a0 Rather, bare assertions of a violation are made without reference to any prohibition or act of control. “<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Id<\/em>. at [17].\u00a0 Finally, as to equal protection,<\/p>\n“A belief in the existence of the sasquatch is not an immutable personal characteristic. First, there is no political belief at issue here; Mr. Standing\u2019s belief in the sasquatch\u2019s existence is not a political matter.\u00a0 Second, such belief is not akin to ‘constructively immutable’ grounds like religion.\u00a0 Where religion can be an element core to a person\u2019s state of being in all aspects of life, the same cannot be said of a belief in the existence of the sasquatch.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Id<\/em>. at [22].\u00a0 The court struck the claim with prejudice and awarded the defendant its costs, deeming the case “a matter of ordinary difficulty.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by John M. Simpson. In a case raising unusual issues (to say the least), a trial court in the Canadian province of British Columbia recently dismissed a case in which the plaintiff contended that his rights under law were violated by the government’s apparent refusal to recognize the plaintiff’s belief in the existence of sasquatch.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":317,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,125,5,124],"ppma_author":[697],"class_list":["post-92","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-animal-law","tag-bigfoot","tag-john-simpson","tag-sasquatch"],"authors":[{"term_id":697,"user_id":317,"is_guest":0,"slug":"jmsimpson","display_name":"John M. Simpson","avatar_url":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/38\/2018\/06\/simpsonjohn-125x150.jpg","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/317"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=92"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}