Pubdate: Tue, 28 Oct 2008
Source: Maple Ridge News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2008 Maple Ridge News
Contact:  http://www.mapleridgenews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1328
Author: Monisha Martins
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)

RCMP STILL WITH HYDRO TEAM

The City of Pitt Meadows will continue to clamp down on homes 
suspected of housing marijuana grow operations despite a court ruling 
that no longer allows police to accompany inspectors to the sites.

Bylaws officer Leslie Elchuk said police will not go into the homes anymore.

"They have been just standing on the sidewalk while we go in and do 
our inspections."

Pitt Meadows' Public Safety Inspection Program started in Feb. 2007 
and was modelled after similar programs in Surrey and Abbotsford.

Under the program, the city can conduct electrical safety inspections 
on residences with abnormally high energy usage, based on information 
provided by B.C. Hydro.

Occupants are given 24 hours notice prior to a search by the 
inspection team, which is made up of a bylaw officer, an electrical 
inspector, fire personnel, as well as members of the RCMP - for 
security purposes.

The property owner is fined $3,000 if evidence of grow op is found.

In a judgment released Friday, B.C. Supreme Court Justice William 
Smart ruled that the Safety Standards Amendment Act, which allows 
electrical inspection teams to enter residences suspected of 
containing grow operations, does not violate the Canadian Charter of 
Rights and Freedoms.

However, bringing police inside for the inspection breaches Section 8 
of the Charter, which protects the public against unreasonable 
search, Smart found.

"A police search of a private residence, even when conducted in aid 
of an electrical safety inspection, is intrusive," Smart wrote in his 
ruling. "The search and police presence during the safety inspection 
add a significant stigma to the inspection, imbuing it with an aura 
of criminality absent from a typical electrical safety inspection. 
These factors must be considered together with the very high 
expectation of privacy that attaches to a private residence."

This year to date, Pitt Meadows has inspected seven properties 
suspected of containing grow ops. Of those, only three contained 
traces of a marijuana grow operation.

In 2007, the city conducted 38 inspections, 17 of which showed signs 
of an illegal marijuana crop.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom