Pubdate: Sat, 10 Nov 2007
Source: Toronto Sun (CN ON)
Copyright: 2007, Canoe Limited Partnership.
Contact:  http://torontosun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/457
Author: Tom Godfrey

Pot search legal

Court - Dreadlocks Enough For Airport Examination

A dreadlocked Toronto human rights worker has lost a "test case"
against Canadian border officials after claiming he was targeted for a
Pearson airport drug search because of his hairstyle. Paul Richards,
who works for the Ontario Human Rights Commission, claims he was
searched in July 2003 while returning from Jamaica because he fit the
profile of "a drug smuggler as a black man with dreadlocks coming from
a source country."

He filed an unsuccessful complaint to the Canadian Human Rights
Commission, which led to a failed appeal to the Federal Court of
Canada, which issued a ruling two weeks ago.

Richards, in court documents, alleged he was questioned three times by
different Customs officers about his vacation, where he stayed, what
he did and if he was "gainfully employed."

He said the questioning ceased after he told officers he worked for
the province.

Richards alleged the officers' actions were based on "stereotypical
assumptions about the criminality of African-Canadian males."

"To single out and treat someone differently because of how they look
is racial profiling," his lawyer, Marie Chen, of the African Canadian
Legal Clinic, alleged in court last month.

But the court said Richards' complaint was probed and dismissed by a
CHRC investigator who ruled Customs officers are entitled to keep the
country safe and ask questions of travellers.

The CHRC said adherents of the Rastafarian faith use marijuana and
officers can ask if any was being brought into the country.
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MAP posted-by: Derek