I think I'm following this. I think.
There's a huge debate within the USA between justices who are "originalists" and those who attempt to interpret laws as their original intent was, rather than how this intent might evolve through the ages. Justice Scalia was one, and his replacement, Gorsuch, is another.
There's another huge debate as to the amount judges can divine the intent of a law, from the way it developed - as opposed to forgetting its development and simply interpreting the final judicial product as legislators drafted it.
You've positioned yourself as a liberal interpreter of laws. You're no Scalia or Gorsuch.
Still - the starting point for determining if calunnia has an equivalent crime in Canada, so I am told, is where it is listed (which other laws it is sectioned with). It seems Vixen is on the right track, so I am told, in that both public mischief (Canada) and calunnia (Italy) are contained in sections titled (loosely), "Offences Against the Administration of Law and Justice".
In Italy, this is even more pronounced, because other countries around it which also descend from Inquisatorial criminal systems (like France or Belguim) count this crime as a crime against honour, not the administration of law and justice.
So the argument as to the two laws inequivalency, belongs elsewhere. No one as of yet has shown me where it is, and I don't have access or training, really, to figure it out myself.
But, I am told, the compelling issue here is that in this case, we are talking about someone who has twice now gone to Canada within 6 months - to talk on the very subject that should naturally attract the attention of CBSA. And here's the key, CBSA found no barriers to her entrance - which you might expect if Vixen were 100% right.
For someone who is not a lawyer to be invited to talk at a law school event on the wrongfully convicted, and having a name which once had been in the news (although not big in Canada) - can be expected to attract attention.
So the fact of the seamless travel through the border signals something that I cannot find, but also that Vixen cannot admit, and which undeniably remains. CBSA does not regard Knox as a felon.
I'd be surprised if a CBSA agent - who always has full discretion - buried themselves in the minutiae as per above Numbers. That scenario would require a prior intervention by, perhaps, a Seattle lawyer to the Canadian government, and then a notice sent to ports of entry attached to the American passport in question.
My guess - an uneducated one - is that it would be more akin to why Canada threatened to refuse extradition to Wisconsin of Laurie Bembenek, who was MORE than simply a convicted murderer, but an escaped convict! Yet when Canada looked into the case when preparing for a potential extradition, Canada put riders onto the request that Wisconsin review the conviction, or Canada would refuse extradition.
This act won Bembenek a new trial. My guess is akin to your other scenario that someone in the Canadian government has actually looked into Knox's calunnia conviction and determined that the evidence in Italy does not support a conviction.
So where I am sitting now is that more than likely calunnia and public mischief are not equivalent crimes, but that the reason is located elsewhere other than in the Criminal Code itself.
Custody battles
I hope I'm getting this last part right, but it was mentioned earlier today and I ran across this frequently in my own reading - in case law "public mischief" shows up frequently in parental custody battles, where the accusation is a targeted maneuver against a specific person. What Knox's calunnia conviction lacks is any sense that (assuming it was a safe conviction for a moment) Knox purposefully wanted to harm Lumumba specifically. It was you, Numbers, who noted that Hellmann based his own calunnia conviction on something other than that Lumumba specifically had been targeted.
I would have said that a key element in the case law for public mischief was this specific targeting against an individual (something contained in the case law surrounding Section 140 in Canada, but totally absent from calunnia in Italy) - except there's also this strange case of the New Year's Eve party, where when the host falsely claimed that the murder victim had left her party safely, she was herself ended up being charged with public mischief under Section 140, without even naming a culprit (falsely or otherwise) at all!
When the defence lawyer wanted the judge to dismiss the charge as the wrong one on which to try his client, the judge refused. That one was a headscratcher.
So - I can only repeat what I've been told - the key element is that CBSA is acting as if Italian calunnia and Canadian public mischief are not equivalents, with all the caveats above.
But regardless of the nuances, it's what CBSA is doing. This is where the guilter will have to, eventually, start accusing the CBSA of being a stooge to the Masons - like they've done with Kassim, Douglas, Moore, Dr. Gill, etc.
Bill, are you reading all of CCC 140? It has more sections than 140(1a). It includes intent to mislead the police by: 140(1b) doing anything intended to cause some other person to be suspected of having committed an offence that the other person has not committed, or to divert suspicion from himself.
For some reason you are focusing on the fact that calunnia and public mischief are under similar headings of crimes relating to or against the administration of justice. But there are many Italian laws under this heading, and not all of them are close to public mischief. One must look at the specific definition of the crimes - their elements. Otherwise, one could say a mouse and an elephant are the same, since they're both mammals.
"Intent to mislead" is a critical element in public mischief, but not in calunnia. However, "aggravated calunnia" includes intent to mislead. Intent to mislead, such as using calunnia to shift the blame of a crime from one's self to another, is what is called an "aggravating factor" in Italian law. The Nencini court provisionally convicted Knox of "aggravated calunnia" with an increase in sentence over the one given by the Hellmann court. This conviction was quashed by the Marasca CSC panel; they reiterated that Knox was convicted of calunnia (meaning non-aggravated, "simple" calunnia) and reaffirmed that her sentence was only that given by the Hellmann court.
Thus, "aggravated calunnia", where the aggravating factor is intent to mislead by shifting blame from one's self to another, is exactly equivalent to part of public mischief 140 (1b). The guilters, assuming that Knox is guilty of the murder/rape or that she knew that Guede was guilty and Lumumba innocent, therefore, wrongfully equate her "simple" calunnia conviction to public mischief.
I hope the above explanation helps.
If it doesn't, think about the different kinds of blasphemy laws.
Here's a puzzle: Suppose A publicly denounces God (or the ancient Greek gods, if you will) in libelous terms (I'm not sure what that means) in the US. Under the 1st Amendment of the US Constitution, A has committed no crime; however, A's actions arguably fall under Canadian blasphemy law. Must A report his acts to CBSA in order to legally enter Canada?
In practice, regarding entry, does CBSA only concern itself with acts and convictions that only raise potential issues of public safety in Canada?
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