Dead of Night: "Taking the Fifth"?

[David Yamanishi]

Does Canada have the same fifth amendment the U.S. does, or has this expression
just become common coin?

[Jackie Wilson]

I don't think that Canada has a fifth amendment like the U.S. does. I
think that it was a common American saying that has just migrated across
the border to Canada. After all Toronto is a major hub of activity for
the U.S. and Canada, where else would a phrase like that show up.

-
JACKIE WILSON KUF...@prodigy.com

[Ngaire Genge]

David Yamanishi (yama...@ix.netcom.com) wrote:
: Does Canada have the same fifth amendment the U.S. does, or has this

: expression just become common coin?

Canada's Fifth Ammendment has nothing to do with the right to hold your
tongue :). It's not that uncommon however, for it to get written into
Canadian scripts by American writers. Was that the case in this episode?
The one that sort of makes me laugh, however, is when Canadian cops start
explaining the suspects "Miranda" rights. The Miranda case, of course, was
also an Americanism :).

Cheers,
Ngaire

[tariku Debretsion]

*****

I'm another American viewer who found Nat's last line in this
episode peculiar (maybe she meant she'd take a fifth of Scotch).
My quesation is, aren't the people working on FK (at least on
the set) Canadian? If they were afraid of sounding too
Canadian, couldn't someone have thought of a neutral line to
serve the same purpose in the script? I've also wondered
whether Metro Homicide (at least, according to a map of
Toronto I have, they are called the Metro Police) calls
whatever body investigates police shootings, etc. "IA" (Internal
Affairs, as we do in the U.S.) and whether Nat is a coroner or
a medical examiner (she's been called both).

*****
Nancy Debretsion

[Karen Tobin]

In article <1996Feb26.0...@lafn.org>,

aw...@lafn.org (tariku Debretsion) wrote:
>
>I'm another American viewer who found Nat's last line in this
>episode peculiar (maybe she meant she'd take a fifth of Scotch).
>My quesation is, aren't the people working on FK (at least on
>the set) Canadian? If they were afraid of sounding too
>Canadian, couldn't someone have thought of a neutral line to
>serve the same purpose in the script? I

>Nancy Debretsion

The director of this episode posted on AOL that this use of "taking the fifth"
is quite common in Canada.

Karen, Forever Knightie
kto...@tiac.net
..clinging to her paganism like lichen to a stone...