Pubdate: Thu, 01 May 2008
Source: Montreal Gazette (CN QU)
Copyright: 2008 The Gazette, a division of Southam Inc.
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/274
Author: Janice Tibbets, Canwest News Service
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?237 (Drug Dogs)

SNIFFER DOGS HERE TO STAY, DAY SAYS

Top Court Rulings Aren't Licence To Carry Drugs And Other Contraband, 
He Insists

Canadians will continue to see scent-tracking dogs doing random 
searches at airports and lawmakers are considering new ways for 
canines to sniff out other public places, Public Safety Minister 
Stockwell Day says. With a trained Labrador retriever named Shelly at 
his side, Day held a news conference yesterday at Ottawa airport to 
warn that two rulings from the Supreme Court of Canada last week do 
not amount to a licence to carry illicit drugs and other contraband 
in public places.

The decisions cleared an Ontario high school student and a Vancouver 
man of drug charges on the grounds that random sniffer-dog searches 
violated the Charter of Rights protection against unreasonable search 
and seizure in a school and bus depot, respectively.

Police will persist in using the dogs for routine searches at 
airports, border stations and federal prisons, Day said.

"I am wanting to make sure that anybody out there who is thinking of 
transporting contraband or explosive material or items like that, I 
am sending a message very clearly, that (we) will continue to use 
sniffer dogs in these facilities," he said.

Day acknowledged, however, that other locations, such as schools and 
bus stations, are more problematic, after the top court ruled police 
must have a reasonable suspicion of a crime before allowing their 
dogs to sniff out the public.

Day said he does not like the rulings and officials in the Justice 
and Public Safety Departments are looking at ways to allow sniffer 
dogs to help protect the public from drugs and bombs.

He hinted Ottawa is prepared to craft a new law that revives police 
powers weakened by the Supreme Court, but he did not elaborate.

While the top court effectively wiped out random searches in some 
public places, the decisions were silent on airports, which are 
governed by stricter security laws.

Several Supreme Court rulings have established privacy rights are 
lower when weighed against the need to secure the borders, setting 
precedents that legal experts say would entitle police to use their 
scent-tracking dogs in airports.
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