Smart Video foe Hamouth says he is being watched
2006-01-20 15:01 ET - Street Wire
by Stockwatch Business Reporter
Smart Video Technologies Inc.'s court opponent, West Vancouver promoter Rene Hamouth, is in court again. He is not suing Smart Video, or any other company, however. This time Mr. Hamouth is suing the Canadian government and the Municipality of West Vancouver for invasion of privacy.
Mr. Hamouth claims West Vancouver police have tapped his phone, bugged his house and followed him around town. He says the government is "illegally investigating" him and is eavesdropping on him at every chance.
He also says CSIS, the Canadian spy agency, has been spying on him since 2004.
The suit names the Attorney General of Canada, the Municipality of West Vancouver and West Vancouver chief of police Grant Churchill as defendants. The suit also names six John Does, all members of the RCMP and the West Vancouver Police.
Nobody will say why investigators could have bugged Mr. Hamouth's house. Not his lawyer, not the police and not the government.
"I can't comment on the merits of the claim," says Keitha Elvin-Jensen, the government lawyer.
The West Vancouver Police department declined to comment on the matter.
The lawsuit of few details
Mr. Hamouth's lawsuit does not contain many details of the alleged invasion of privacy. For example it does not say what led Mr. Hamouth to believe the government planted listening devices in his walls.
Based on the lack of detail, government lawyers asked a judge to toss the suit earlier this month.
The judge did not throw the suit out, but he did order Mr. Hamouth to include more information.
"In its original form, the statement of claim, for the most part, fails to state the material facts," B.C. Supreme Court Justice Thomas Melnick said.
The phone, the VCR, the TV and the computer are bugged
In what details are available, Mr. Hamouth claims his phone calls are monitored and the electronics in his house are bugged.
Mr. Hamouth says somebody has "compromised" his VCR, TV and computer and they do not work properly. He says he has other electrical problems stemming from "bugging, wiring and other electronic surveillance devices."
Apparently his plumbing has even suffered a diversion "which can not be attributed to any lawful conduct."
Mr. Hamouth also complains plainclothes police are regularly watching outside his house. When he leaves he says they follow him and photograph anybody he meets.
A threat to national security?
Mr. Hamouth says CSIS and the police have never told him what they are investigating. He claims the police and CSIS sent him letters in late 2004 telling him he was under investigation, but nobody said why.
"At no time has there existed reasonable grounds on which [Mr. Hamouth] could be suspected of constituting a threat to national security," Mr. Hamouth's lawyer says in court filings.
Mr. Hamouth also says his bank, CIBC, stopped doing business with him after government agents had a talk with his banker.
The judge gave Mr. Hamouth until Jan. 26 to refile his lawsuit.
Mr. Hamouth sued Smart Video
Mr. Hamouth is a veteran of many civil suits. Last June he sued Smart Video, an OTC Bulletin Board listing, for libel. He said the company damaged his reputation when it told his broker he was illegally trading the stock.
He lost that suit.
In another suit Mr. Hamouth claimed New York stock promoter Lev Zaidenberg ripped him off in the collapse of OTC-BB listing Constellation 3D Inc. |
