What Can Be Owned?

Question 1

R v Bentham

Answer 1

Facts: Accused held hand in his shirt pointed like a gun during robbery, charged with possession of imitation firearm.

Held: Acquitted. One cannot possess something which is not separate and distinct from oneself. An unsevered hand or finger is part of oneself. Therefore, one cannot possess it.

Question 2

Saulnier v RBC

Answer 2

Facts: P is a bankrupt fisherman and claims his fishing license is merely a privilege to do what would otherwise be illegal, and therefore can’t pass to D bank as property claimed in bankruptcy. P claims he’s entitled to carry on fishing despite the bankruptcy, leaving creditors to fight over the remaining assets. Without the licences the assets do not come close to covering the liabilities

Held: P loses, but for different reasons and on more limited basis.

Reasons

• Fishing license is more than a mere license to do what is otherwise illegal: it’s a license coupled with a proprietary interest in the harvest from the fishing effort (contingent on catching any fish of course)
• Preferred approach: P acquires much more than permission to fish, they also acquire right to engage in exclusive fishery, and what is of prime importance, is a proprietary right in the wild fish harvested thereunder, and the earnings from their sale.
• While these elements don’t wholly correspond to common law property, they are sufficient to qualify the bundle of rights as property for purposes of the statutes

Question 3

R v Stewart

Answer 3

Facts: D hired to obtain info for union of hotel employees. D tried to get info through security guard, but security guard reported D.

Held: D wins. As a matter of policy, confidential information should not be property for the purposes of s. 283 of the Code. To the extent that protection is warranted for confidential information, it should be granted through Parliament. Further, confidential information can’t be taken/converted in a way that deprives victim.