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Is their anything I can do to get around this audio recording law for my plot?

H

harmonica44

I discovered a plot hole in my story that was overlooked before. After doing research, apparently in Canada (my story's setting), you are not allowed to record a conversation unless you are part of it. That makes sense.

In my story, a cop is raped by a serial rapist/killer type of villain, he is pursuing, only to find himself being on of the victims later. After the villain gets away with it, the cop obsessively pursues him wanting justice for what was done to him.

Now I wanted to write it so that the cop was following the villain around on his own time, but since he cannot record anything the villain says to incriminate himself to any of his associates, what can he do instead?

I don't want the villain to have any more potential victims at this point. I would just like him to incriminate himself and be caught. But since the MC is not allowed to record anything what kind of evidence could he get?

He cannot break into the villain's property to obtain anything either, since that's also illegal, so is their anything that my MC can do on his own, without warrants, since the villain is legally off the hook, and the prosecutor will not the help the MC?

Perhaps there is something in the law that might work for my story idea?
 
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That was my first idea for an ending, but it's just so predictable now though, revenge by killing. I thought it would be more impactful if the cop was actually able to bring evidence against the villain, and put his superiors to shame for not taking it seriously, and sort of throwing it in their faces, if that makes sense.

What do you think?
 
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What happens if an incriminating recording is submitted without knowing who recorded it or how it was recorded? Otherwise your cop will have to do it illegally. Or perhaps you can come up with surveillance by another person/agency that will also suffice legally. Or, if not, the recordings may be illegal, but the cop did not make the recordings, so they still potentially admissible?
 
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Well since the cop is working on his own, I don't have any other characters that could record it. I don't want to create a new character who can conveniently come in to save the day though, if that is okay. I thought it would be more compelling if the MC is forced to achieve his goal on his own, if possible.

As far as submitting a recording without knowing who recorded it, I read that legally a prosecutor cannot use evidence if the source is unknown. I think that same law might apply in this scenario, or so it sounds like.
 
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Are you saying my MC should rape the villain back? Since the villain was lusting over the MC in the first place, it would just satisfy him more, and wouldn't do anything revenge wise.
 
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harmonica44 said:
Are you saying my MC should rape the villain back? Since the villain was lusting over the MC in the first place, it would just satisfy him more, and wouldn't do anything revenge wise.
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H44, nobody here knows what the hell your script is about. You keep changing everything. What you said is your MC is raped and has no official recourse. Now the MC can choose to kill the villain, kill himself, run away or try something off-the-wall. You've eliminated the first because it's too commonplace. You could do the second or third but those seem rather anticlimactic by themselves. Which only leaves you the last option.

I'm not suggesting any particular course of action. I have no clue about your story in this gazillionth re-write. I am simply passing on what another production did, giving the villain a taste of his own medicine as it were. As we talked about before, that can be the transformative point in the Anti-Hero's Journey into darkness. Much as killing the Jedi students was for Anakin--that point of no return.

In this episode, you see a good cop obsessed with a rapist go bad. He becomes the monster. He can't stand that so takes his own life in the end. However, the rapist has been raped and now is also arrested for his crimes. It's a multilayered, well written TV episode that is beyond your current writing ability but one worth watching. It may give you some ideas about how to proceed with your own script.
 
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Okay thanks. I watched it again. I find the story an the characters to be very different then my story where a person is raped.

I wanted to write mine where the MC fails to kill the villain, but manages to get a piece of evidence to get the villain convicted. However, since the villain left no evidence at the scene of the crime, the MC has to find a way of incriminating the villain.

But if he is not legally allowed to record a conversation without a warrant, as my researched has lead me to discover, then he cannot present such evidence in court, and the villain would not go down.

So is their a way around that recording law, or can I write it so that the MC can get some sort of evidence, without needing a warrant, since he is acting on his own, trying to put the police to shame by solving his own rape case, which the police cannot? Or if I write it so that he does kill the rapist, he needs to make it look like self defense in order to get away with it. So he would need a reason to go after the rapist and arrest her, in order to make look like he killed in self defense, for resisting arrest, and trying to kill a cop. So he still needs a reason to arrest her for this to work, which means he will need some good evidence.
 
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You might go at it from a forensic pov. If I remember from previous incarnations, the villains videotape these events. Possibly in one of the films, we see a characteristic ring, tattoo or peculiar nervous habit. It may be seen in a mirror reflection that goes unnoticed at the time. Most crimes will leave some evidence. One of them posts a video on Facebook that is innocent but that same tell is present.
 
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Okay thanks for the suggestion. I thought of that before, but readers told me that just because a person has a revealing tattoo, or there is something about a person in it, it will not hold up in court, cause a lawyer can just argue that lots of people have the same tattoos, and it would be enough to raise reasonable doubt, or so I was told.

Plus I was also told that it makes the villains look stupid, if they do not cover up such tattoos when making the videos.

Basically the way I wanted to write it is that the cops kick in the door and catch the villains in the act, of just finished making the video, and are uploading it to their site. The place that they are in that they made the video, will match that of the previous videos.

But I was told that this is implausible, cause the cops cannot kick down the door, cause making a video is not a crime. Even if they have probable cause to believe that they are making a video, that is related to past videos of crimes, the video itself is not a crime, and they cannot be busted for doing anything legal, when they had no cause to kick in someone's door to find out. Having a matching tattoo is not a crime either, so it's not admissible either.

The entry was illegal cause no crime was being committed, even if the video matches videos of other crimes. So I was told that would not work, but having trouble trying to come up with a scenario in which the cops can catch them with evidence that would be admissible and hold up in court.
 
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Having a matching tattoo is not a crime either, so it's not admissible either.
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What the F*** has one got to do with the other? Are only crimes admissible now? What idiot came up with that?

The entry was illegal cause no crime was being committed
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Once again, WTF? Really? Is this crap coming from the voices in your head?

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How about the cop finds another former victim who has solid evidence against the villain.Use those evidences against him or make them lead the villain to a trap and make him suffer till he die.
 
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No, a couple of readers told me that a same looking tattoo, is not enough to get a murder conviction. I was told by a cop in my research that the police cannot enter a house unless they think that a crime is being committed, but suspecting someone of making a video, is not a crime.

As for having another witness come forth, I can't think of a reason why this witness would be saved until the end of the story. I could go that route and come up with something but I would like the MC to catch the villains himself rather than some witness coming forth at the last minute. I just think it may be more intriguing if he beat his own challenge, rather than someone else do it for him maybe?
 
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