LOCAL CASES LIKELY IMPACTED BY HIGH COURT'S DRUG RULING

Random Sniffer-Dog Searches Deemed Violation Of Privacy Rights

A SUPREME Court decision opposing two random drug searches with
sniffer dogs could influence cases in Manitoba where people have been
similarly charged and could affect Manitoba police in future drug
investigations. The ruling Friday is expected to end routine searches
in public places like schools and bus and train stations.

In a 6-3 decision, the court ruled in favour of a Sarnia, Ont., high
school student and a Vancouver man found to have had cocaine in his
luggage at a bus terminal in Calgary. The court found police violated
the charter right against unreasonable search and seizure by allowing
their dogs to embark on general sniff searches of a school and bus
depot without more concrete reasons to suspect drugs were present.

"Naturally we're disappointed," said Marc Pellerin, the newly elected
vicepresident of the Winnipeg Police Association.

"It's another chink in the armour of policing tools that help us keep
on top of these things." Winnipeg defence lawyer Sheldon Pinx said
the ruling will have implications in Manitoba and believes similar
cases here "would be clearly impacted" if they involve police using
sniffer dogs to gather evidence based on reasonable suspicion.

Police in Manitoba use the detection dogs on a "reasonably frequent"
basis, he said, especially on highways in and out of Winnipeg.

Pinx said lawyers in his firm have handled at least a dozen cases in
recent years involving searches stemming from sniffer dogs and
believes there are a number of cases currently before the courts that
will be affected, including one of his own.

"These two decisions may have a significant impact on this appeal," he said.

While the ruling is expected to hinder random sniffer-dog searches by
publicly funded forces such as Winnipeg police and RCMP, one private
investigation company expects things will be business as usual.

"When we conduct our searches, we're not actually acting as agents of
the state at all," said Jeff Bellingham, a retired Winnipeg police
drug investigator who runs Rogue Crew Investigations and conducts
drug-sniffing dog searches of locations including Manitoba high schools.

"We're employed by whoever employs us, schools or manufacturing
plants or even private individuals."

The group has done searches for clients including schools in the
Brandon School Division. In Winnipeg, school divisions have
previously discussed the idea of having dogs search lockers or
classrooms, but decided the procedure is too intrusive.

Bellingham said he hasn't read the Supreme Court decision and feels
it's premature to speculate on its full effects.

But he said there could be implications if schools or other groups go
ahead with criminal charges.

It's a different story for schools elsewhere in the country.

"What this means for us is we won't have the ability to bring the
dogs in at random," said Paul Wubben, director of education for the
St. Clair Catholic District School Board in Sarnia, Ont. Schools in
the St. Clair district routinely invited police and their sniffer
dogs to root out drugs until a teen identified as A.M. challenged the
practice following his arrest on drug charges at St. Patrick's
Catholic High School in 2002.

The Supreme Court majority said that the sniff search violated A.M.'s
rights, saying that students are entitled to the same expectation of
privacy in their backpacks as adults are in their purses or briefcases.

The court also ruled 6-3 in favour of Gurmakh Kang-Brown, who was
caught with 17 ounces of cocaine in his luggage after RCMP conducted
a random search with a sniffer dog, Chevy, at the Calgary Greyhound
Bus depot six years ago.