About that Witchcraft law

So, have I been invoking again?

Remember that law I mentioned earlier about it being illegal in Canada to pretend to be a witch? A woman is on trial for it in Toronto.

Vishwantee Persaud allegedly defrauded a Toronto lawyer of tens of thousands of dollars by telling him she was the embodiment of the spirit of his deceased sister, come back to help him in business. Ms. Persaud now faces charges under a rarely used section of the criminal code for pretending to practise witchcraft.

The article does shed some light on where the law came from.

"It's a historical quirk," says Alan Young, a professor at Osgoode Hall Law School. Some sections of the Canadian criminal code reflect offences that were more prevalent centuries ago. When the code was enacted in 1892, witchcraft per se was no longer a punishable offence, he says, but lawmakers wanted to ensure witchcraft wasn't used as a cover for fraud.

Also, it seems it is less severe in the eyes of the law than simple fraud.

In fact, he points out, this kind of offence could lead to a simple charge of fraud, which carries longer jail terms and stiffer fines. As it stands, a conviction of pretending to practise witchcraft carries a maximum sentence of six months in jail and/or a $2,000 fine.

(h/t horsetraveller and mzrowan)

More on the Green Balloons

The police report for the case I mentioned earlier is out and it disagrees with the previous info and provides some new information as well. It does say the woman knew him for years, and details a completely non-consensual act of far greater violence with no mention of a safeword agreed to beforehand

In sum, the incident report describes a much more violent and brutal encounter than does the probable cause document. And it suggests that there was no consent, at any point, to sex of any kind.

The incident report and the probable cause document contain some variations.

The only mention of a safe word in the incident report comes near the end. It states that in the morning, "she remembered Mr. Jetton telling her, "I told you to say green balloons," as if it was a code word for him to stop." As we noted Tuesday, the probable cause document states that "Mr. Jetton and [the woman] agreed on a safe word of "Green balloons" to use as a stop word during intercourse. Later, it states that in the morning, Mr. Jetton told the woman: "You should have said green balloons."

8 'Cracked' Lists I Enjoyed Wasting Time Reading

 It's not deep, but Cracked can be fun.

• Six adorable cat behaviors with shockingly evil explanations
• Six "brilliant" movies scientists who suck at their job
• Nine real-life mad scientists
  
• Seven man-made substances that laugh in the face of physics
• Five materials that will make the world as we know it obsolete
• Six amazing non-sex scenes from porn
• L. Ron Hubbard's 5 most impressive lies (besides Scientology)
• Twelve "sexy" ads that will give you nightmares

LOLcats make it ok

Twilight and New Moon - in lolcat.