Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/11/26/cops-catch-canadian-clairvoyan.html
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what’s funnier than psychics getting caught? - like they totally did not see that coming
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Why prohibit unburdening fools of their money when you tax it? /s
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A guy who tried stealing from me at an open house was caught when he stole a wallet from a cop. How much do you want to bet there was a friend of law enforcement fleeced?
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Fine!!? She turned me into a newt!
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Unless she was demanding sports bobble-head dolls you probably meant “baubles”.
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Clearly, you got better.
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It could well be that the police caught Stevenson just under the wire. Last year, legislation was tabled by the Canadian government that would do away with some of the nation’s more archaic laws, including the illegality of witchcraft and fortunetelling.
I agree. From a legal point of view, I’m sure they would find something else to charge her with - probably just a more general fraud provision. But from a “funny news story” point of view, this change in the law will be a tragic loss.
The best part of Bill C-51 is that it repeals section 49 of the Criminal Code, which prohibits doing “an act with intent to alarm Her Majesty or to break the public peace”. So we can all look forward to giving the Queen a good scare.
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For some reason, Canadian psychics are no longer interested in helping police locate missing persons since doing so would violate the law.
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Wait, what’s “crafty science?” I’m imagining a show co-hosted by Bill Nye and Martha Stewart.
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Maybe not.
On the internet no one knows you’re a newt…
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I imagine this law may be based on the United Kingdom’s Witchcraft Act 1735, which again made it illegal to
pretend to exercise or use any kind of Witchcraft, Sorcery, Inchantment, or Conjuration, or undertake to tell Fortunes, or pretend, from his or her Skill or Knowledge in any occult or crafty Science, to discover where or in what manner any Goods or Chattels, supposed to have been stolen or lost, may be found
It was repealed in the UK by the Fraudulent Mediums Act 1951, which required “intent to deceive” for financial gain. This, in turn, was replaced by some very boring consumer protection regulations in 2008.
The old Witchcraft Act’s last uses were against mediums who claimed to be able to contact the spirits of people killed in the Second World War, most famously Helen Duncan.
Did I just out myself?
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she let herself get caught to save humanity you ingrate.
ok so if I do all this clairvoyance stuff but say I’m using machine learning instead of witchcraft I should be doing pretty good.
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machine learning IS witchcraft! you probably knew i was going to say that.
