It’s taken five long years but the raid on my family home (first reported by the Good Oil’s predecessor) has been ruled to be illegal by the High Court. A few small excerpts from the judgement:
I find that the process for obtaining the warrant was flawed and that there has been a miscarriage of justice.
Mr de Boer has been significantly prejudiced insofar as he has been portrayed as simply a disgruntled “right wing” advocate at risk of criminal wrongdoing. Objectively assessed, the much stronger inference is that he was simply exercising his right of political free speech and this needed to be carefully weighed in the assessment.
I find that the warrant process miscarried for failure to include a full copy of Mr de Boer’s post, and in particular that part of it providing a link to the Select Committee process. Given the emphasis placed on Mr de Boer’s participation in a “right wing” group by the police, the failure to refer to this link meant that the judicial officer was left with an unfair impression of Mr de Boer, one that might support an inference that he would unlawfully retain possession of the rifle shown in the post.
I make a declaration to the effect that the warrant was invalid and that the subsequent search breached Mr de Boer’s right to be free from unreasonable search.
This is a big win for the Bill of Rights and for political free speech in New Zealand.
We will be granted costs, but no damages. In the end we could not prove the police had acted maliciously and we were stonewalled very hard on discovery. The opinion of the court is that, if the police say they’re being honest, you have to believe them unless you can provide hard proof to the contrary. You can take a look at the Tamaki case which collapsed after his team was able to obtain recordings between police and politicians but we were not as fortunate.
What happened to me was entirely political. It was kicked off by a far-left activist who was taken seriously by police. We have seen many more cases recently of police HQ employing online monitors to go and harass people for their political views. This is how police work hand-in-hand with these left-wing extremists and undermine their own credibility with the public. This needs to end.
The comment here was cropped off the warrant application and its omission ultimately became the technicality on which we won the case:
The police minister at the time was Stuart Nash, who resigned the day before a Privacy Act request about his communication with Police was due. He messaged Cam to say he was going to get to the bottom of things but then claimed he had made no communication about me in response to an OIA. The Privacy Commissioner declined to investigate the matter of his involvement further after Nash was rotated out of the police ministry.
Who made the call to go after me? We still don’t really know. We are supposed to believe these low-level police officers were acting of their own accord and digging through six-month old emails during the Christmas break.
I could write a hundred pages on this, but I have neither the time nor space to do that right now. We will continue to do what we can to make sure no one else is subjected to the treatment I received.
I will end this post with gratitude for those who have stood with us over the years in getting some answers and justice for the January 2020 police raid on our home.
My lawyer Graeme Minchin made this his final case before retirement: one last Bill of Rights victory to cap off his career. Thanks to my family for encouraging me through this and to Dad for all his help. Esmée was only six weeks old when the raid happened and now we celebrate her fifth birthday.
At the time, in January 2020, both leaders of the opposition, David Seymour and Simon Bridges both defended me in the media. I’ll be forever grateful for that, regardless of our political differences. Nicole McKee offered her support through COLFO at the time and she’s now in a position rewriting the very Arms Act that kicked off the whole saga.
A massive thanks to Cam Slater and his team who made sure the story was read around the country and the world. The Good Oil team has continued to support us and one in particular put in the extra miles by giving expert testimony.
The original court case went well but unfortunately the judgement didn’t engage with the core of our arguments, instead dismissing them in favour of a ‘police followed their procedures and so all is legal’ approach. Cases involving firearms are always much tougher to get through, which is a shame. Had I done drugs, this might have been a walk in the park. The appeal allowed the focus to be placed squarely on the free-speech angle and I am very happy with the result. I believe it will be an important judgement for political freedom in New Zealand.
There are plenty more I could thank, such as Graeme Edgeler who gave us some peace of mind on the focus of the appeal.
The brains behind the whole court case was the anonymous “Origen Adamantius” who has since retired his online persona. Perhaps he may resurface one day under his real name, but this endeavour would have been impossible without his tireless work and the countless hours he put in, asking nothing in return but that I continue the fight until the very end. He put the team together, he did the hard research, and came up with plan after plan to counter setbacks. He will go on to achieve great things, I am sure.
To God alone the glory.
He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
– Micah 6:8
