Pubdate: Mon, 24 Apr 2000
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright: 2000, The Globe and Mail Company
Contact:  http://www.globeandmail.ca/
Forum: http://forums.theglobeandmail.com/

THE FREDERICTON CONNECTION

You don't often find a country so happy to see one of its citizens 
returning from abroad that it will shower the lucky soul with gifts. When a 
Fredericton woman arrived home from Florida and unpacked her luggage, she 
found a plastic bag of marijuana nestled at the bottom, with a tag 
identifying the previous owner as Revenue Canada, since folded into the 
Canada Customs and Revenue Agency.

What fleeting thoughts must have scampered through her mind? "If they'd 
asked, I'd have preferred the Walkman." Or even: "Did they mix up my 
luggage with Stockwell Day's?"

Another recipient might have accepted the gift with equanimity -- a few too 
many stalks and seeds, but it's the thought that counts -- but no, this 
honest citizen figured something was amiss and handed it over to the 
police, who returned it to Canada Customs. And, says the Canadian Press 
account, it turned out the agency had planted the drug in her bag as she 
landed at the Moncton airport, as part of an exercise to train its 
drug-sniffing dogs.

The woman is not amused, feels her privacy has been violated and may 
consult a lawyer. Fair enough; a customs official says somebody went way 
too far. But if she won't accept that gift, might she consider offering 
sanctuary to the other victim in this story -- some poor drug-sniffing mutt 
whose career evaporated on that day when a Fredericton woman carrying a bag 
of marijuana walked clean by him at the Moncton airport?
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