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.
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