SUPREME COURT TO RULE TODAY ON SNIFFER DOGS IN PUBLIC PLACES

OTTAWA - A case that started with a dog named Chief trying to sniff
out drugs at an Ontario high school culminates in a Supreme Court of
Canada ruling today on whether police can use scent-tracking canines
for random searches in public places, including schools, parks, malls,
airports and bus terminals.

"This has far-reaching implications way past schools," said Paul
Wubben, director of education for the St. Clair Catholic District
School Board in southern Ontario, where principals routinely call
police to bring in sniffer dogs.

At issue is whether sniffer dogs are an invasion of privacy that
amount to unreasonable search and seizure under the Charter of Rights.
The court will hand down rulings in two separate cases that have
sparked enormous commentary and speculation in legal circles in the
absence of any clear Canadian law.

The decisions could put an end to random sweeps with sniffer dogs,
which are commonplace in schools, airports and train and bus stations.

In the case that has attracted the most attention, the court will
decide whether police in Sarnia violated the student body's
constitutional rights by bringing a scent-tracking dog into St.
Patrick's High School in November, 2002.

The police, who had received a standing invitation from the principal,
acknowledged in earlier court proceedings that they were not acting on
a tip, they had no reason to believe student safety was threatened and
that it would have been a "fruitless exercise" to try to obtain a
search warrant.

Students were confined in their classrooms while police searched the
school, including backpacks piled in a corner of the gymnasium. After
a signal from Chief, police zeroed in on one backpack, in which they
found 10 bags of marijuana, 10 magic mushrooms and assorted drug
paraphernalia.

A student identified as A.M., who was 17 at the time, was charged, but
later cleared by two Ontario courts on the grounds that police had
violated his Charter rights.