Ruling a blow to province’s hopes for expanding ‘Robin Hood’ law

Judge rejects seizure of sailboat after drunken crash, saying case merits prosecution, not property confiscation

A Superior Court judge has struck back against the province’s efforts to expand civil forfeiture and seize property only tangentially linked to crime.

In a ruling published Wednesday, Justice David Corbett rejected a government bid to seize the sailboat of a man who had crashed it into another boat and fallen overboard. He was later picked up by police and found to have had a bloodalcohol level over the legal limit.

While the conduct of Valentin Chygyrynskyy, 62, deserves criminal prosecu- tion, Corbett wrote in his decision, “it does not warrant seizure of his sailboat.”

The case had serious implications for those caught drunk drinking and, had it been successful, could have led to more widespread seizure of cars and trucks.

“This decision makes it a lot more challenging to seize property if it’s not property that’s inherently illegal or property that has a proven track record of being used illegally resulting in injury to others,” said Justin Safayeni, who was appointed by the court to oppose the Attorney General.

“Certainly there’s been a trend to the expansive use of these powers, and this decision — at least for the time being — seems to dial it back.”

The attorney general sought to seize the boat under the Ontario Civil Remedies Act, a Robin Hood law conceived as a way to take property from criminals and give the proceeds from its sale to victims.

Yet, as the Star has previously reported, no conviction — not even a charge — is necessary for a seizure to take place.

The province did not claim the boat was purchased with the proceeds of crime, only that it was “likely” to be used in unlawful activity that would “likely” result in serious injury.

“The law was never intended to lead to forfeiture in these circum- stances: it was aimed at organized crime and intentional crime undertaken for personal gain,” Corbett wrote in his decision.

“(The sailboat) is not property like a weapon, lights for growing drugs, or premises used exclusively for growing drugs, where the ownership and use of the property is inherently illegitimate,” he wrote.

“There is nothing about the boat itself . . . that would lead to an inference that it will ‘likely’ be used for an unlawful purpose in the future.”

The Star was unable to contact Chygyrynskyy. He has been charged with impaired or dangerous driving on at least five occasions in the past eight years.

Besides one conviction and one withdrawn charge, the outcome of the other cases remains unclear.