POLICE CHARGE ‘FREEMAN’ WITH ‘PAPER TERRORISM’
Man bombarded court system with documents
• Paper terrorists will no longer be tolerated.
In a precedent-setting move against a self-proclaimed Freeman on the Land, a 45-year-old man has been charged with intimidation of a peace officer by filing a deluge of documents in court.
The charges against Allen Boisjoli, of Vegreville, stem from a speeding ticket issued by the peace officer outside Edmonton in May 2015.
Boisjoli filmed the incident, posted it to YouTube, and then launched a campaign of legal filings. He attempted to file a lien against the officer in Edmonton courts, claiming that the officer was liable for $225,000 for detaining him and issuing the ticket.
Edmonton Det. Rae Gerrard said Tuesday the “paper terrorism” tactics allegedly used by Boisjoli are typical of the Freeman on the Land.
“They use a plethora of documents, which really mean absolutely nothing,” Gerrard said. ” They’re just cutting and pasting from all over the Internet, from all over the world. They put them together in hundreds and hundreds of pages of documents and flood the courts with this, just in an effort to overwhelm the courts and confuse people.”
What makes this charge “precedent-setting,” Gerrard said, is that this is the first time police in Canada have been able to pin a charge to a Freeman based on the practice of trying to overwhelm and intimidate the legal system with filings.
The term “paper terrorism” has been used by the courts in previous cases to describe a misuse of legal processes.
Gerrard said Boisjoli was arrested and charged on Aug. 27. He said so far Boisjoli has not “accepted” the charge, and has not retained a lawyer.
It is not the first time Boisjoli has tried to fight a speeding ticket.
In October 2015, a top Alberta judge targeted the Freemen on the Land movement — and Boisjoli — in a decision declaring him to be a “vexatious litigant.”
The lengthy and scathing decision by Court of Queen’s Bench Associate Chief Justice John Rooke restricts Boisjoli from filing or continuing actions in all Alberta courts.
“The restrictions this court places on Boisjoli’s ability to access Alberta courts are unusual and strict, but Boisjoli’s history and his current attempt to misuse court procedure to further a criminal enterprise warrant this intervention,” said Rooke in the written decision.
According to the decision, Boisjoli tried to enter a default judgment using his own forms, rather than the standard court-supplied ones, while attempting to get out of paying a speeding ticket by claiming the province and the peace officer who issued the ticket owed him a debt.