Pubdate: Fri, 10 Apr 2009 Source: Montreal Gazette (CN QU) Copyright: 2009 Canwest Publishing Inc. Contact: http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/letters.html Website: http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/274 Author: Janice Tibbetts, Canwest News Service TOP COURT TRASHES PRIVACY ARGUMENT Police Do Not Need Warrant To Search Suspect's Curb-Side Garbage, Judges Rule When you put out the trash, don't expect a constitutional right to privacy of the contents. The Supreme Court of Canada unanimously ruled yesterday that police can sift through garbage if it has been set out at the edge of your property for municipal collection because "abandoned" goods do not trigger Charter of Rights protection. The decision rejected Calgarian Russell Patrick's quest to overturn his drug conviction on grounds that police violated his right against unreasonable search and seizure when they snatched four bags of rubbish, obtaining enough evidence for a search warrant for his home and then charged him with trafficking ecstasy. The trash, which contained such things as drug recipes and receipts from manufacturing supplies, was contained in an open receptacle at the back of his property adjacent to an alley. "When the garbage is placed at the lot line for collection, I believe the householder has sufficiently abandoned his interest and control to eliminate any objectively reasonable privacy interest," Justice Ian Binnie wrote in the 7-0 ruling. "The bags were unprotected and within easy reach of anyone walking by in a public alleyway, including street people, bottle pickers, urban foragers, nosy neighbours, and mischievous children, not to mention dogs and assorted wildlife, as well as the garbage collectors and the police." Patrick, a former swimming star who set a national and a world record, was sentenced to four years in prison in 2006. He has been out on bail pending an appeal of his sentence, which will now go ahead after the Supreme Court refused to overturn his conviction, his lawyer, Jennifer Ruttan, said. The Canadian Civil Liberties Association said there were significant privacy rights at stake in the case because garbage contains intensely personal information such as DNA and financial records and even pill bottles revealing medical conditions. Jonathan Lisus, an Association lawyer, said the ruling contained a bright light for privacy rights because it acknowledged that garbage is more than just garbage and that, in some cases, police would need a judicial permit for access, just as they do to enter private dwellings or listen to telephone conversations. "Until the garbage is placed at or within reach of the lot line, the householder retains an element of control over its disposition and cannot be said to have unequivocally abandoned it, particularly if it is placed on a porch or in a garage or within the immediate vicinity of the dwelling," Binnie wrote. He also stressed that the long arm of the law cannot be expanded by using a "cherry picker" to reach across a property line and pluck trash from the porch. The ruling noted that combing through trash - a common police practice - has been an important source of evidence that has helped in murder investigations. - --- MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart