Pubdate: Thu, 16 Apr 2009 Source: Calgary Sun, The (CN AB) Copyright: 2009 The Calgary Sun Contact: http://www.calgarysun.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/67 Author: Kevin Martin TREASURING OUR TRASH It caused barely a ripple across the national landscape, but a ruling last week by the Supreme Court significantly impacts the civil liberties of all Canadians. In upholding the conviction of a Calgary drug dealer, our nation's top court ruled it was OK for police to sift through the trash of average citizens looking for investigatory treasures. In their unanimous decision, the seven-member court said Russell Steven Patrick's rights weren't violated when cops went through his garbage, finding the evidence they needed to obtain a search warrant. But despite agreeing with her fellow benchers that Patrick's rights weren't breached, Justice Rosalie Abella sounded a warning at giving police unfettered access to the detritus of all Canadians. While many would suggest Abella's comments were no more than an exercise in legal academics, citizens should be as concerned as she is at what amounts to an erosion of our privacy rights. Abella agreed police should be able to analyze garbage left by the curbside, but only if they have a reasonable suspicion a crime has been, or will be committed. In the case of Patrick, a former U of C swimmer and one-time Canadian record holder in the 50-metre breaststroke, that suspicion existed, she noted. Extending the powers of the police to search through anyone's garbage once it is left out for city collection gives investigators a potential view into the private lives of all citizens. Of course most people would just shrug their shoulders and say "who cares, I've got nothing to hide anyway," and "it's not like the police have the manpower to start sifting though every garbage can in the country." But what if they did? Technology certainly doesn't allow the state to rummage through every trash bag in every town and city across this vast nation, at least not yet. The future, however, is an unknown which could some day involve machines that scan each piece of trash before it goes into the garbage truck. Would Canadians then cry foul at the police analyzing ever bit of waste tossed from a home, only to have the Patrick ruling thrown in our faces? Similarly, those who claim they've got nothing to hide would bristle at the thought of allowing the state to barge into their home to conduct random searches, as they can now do with household waste. As Abella noted, trash doesn't simply consist of items that no longer have any value. "What we inelegantly call 'garbage' may contain the most intensely personal and private information about ourselves," she wrote. "The privacy of personal information emanating from the home, which has been transformed into household waste and put out for disposal, is entitled to protection from indiscriminate state intrusion," Abella said. "Such information should not be seen to automatically lose its 'private' character simply because it is put outside for garbage disposal. "Before the state can rummage through the personal information from this ultimate zone of privacy, there should be, at the very least, a reasonable suspicion that a crime has been or is likely to be committed." There doesn't have to be a quantum leap in technology for police to search through anyone's trash -- they can do that now with a pair of surgical-gloved hands. Everyone is now subject to the whim of bored cops with some spare time on their hands to randomly select a curbside garbage bag and go hunting. Of course, the vast majority of Canadians not involved in any criminal behaviour couldn't care less. "The police can go through my trash any time because I'm not doing anything illegal," they'll say. But even if police don't find evidence of wrongdoing, they will gather information -- intelligence they can now choose to use in whatever way they please. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom