Snake Oil and Three-card Monte
I’m going to bet you’ve never heard of three-card monte. I never would have, either, except I went to law school and read (most of) the Criminal Code of Canada which provides, at section 206(2): “In this section, three-card monte means the game commonly known as three-card monte and includes any other game that is similar to it, whether or not the game is played with cards and notwithstanding the number of cards or other things that are used for the purpose of playing.”
In law language, that means that three-card monte is pretty well any slickness the judge thinks it means, and would certainly include what is popularly known as the shell game and any similar ruse where the hand is faster than the eye.
The sale of snake oil is not specifically outlawed by our Criminal Code, but it is covered by section 380 which provides that “Every one who, by deceit, falsehood or other fraudulent means … defrauds the public … of any property, money or valuable security or any service … is guilty of an indictable offence… “
So, here’s the question: if a Canadian politician routinely and blatantly uttered one outrageous untruth after another for the purpose of defrauding the public of good government, or furiously moved the agenda on the table faster than the eye can see, or was just plain up to no good, would that politician be guilty of an indictable offence? If we had our very own Donald or Boris, could we “lock ‘em up”? Hmmm…..