TOP COURT REJECTS RANDOM DOG-SNIFF SEARCHES BY POLICE

Random police-dog searches that lead to drug charges won't pass the
legal sniff test, the country's top court has declared in a split
judgment that reaffirms privacy rights.

The Supreme Court of Canada ruling means police canine teams can't
sweep high schools or public places for drugs without a prior,
justifiable suspicion of a crime.

"This is a good day for civil liberties,'' said Frank Addario,
president of the Criminal Lawyers' Association, of yesterday's ruling.

"The judgment is a reasonable compromise between law enforcement
aspirations to search indiscriminately, and the right to privacy. Now
they need reasonable suspicion -- not a trumped-up profile or a
pretext search based on speculation.''

In a ruling on two separate cases, the high court said that randomly
using drug-sniffing dogs amounts to unreasonable search and a breach
of privacy rights.

The judgment does not affect airports, where a specific set of federal
laws applies.

The majority ruling stresses that "reasonable suspicion'' of a
probable drug crime must exist prior to such dog-sniff searches in
schools, malls, sports stadiums and other public spaces.

In two 6-3 decisions, the high court set aside the conviction of a man
charged with possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking --
he was also found with heroin -- and upheld the acquittal of a student
who was 17 when charged with possession of pot for trafficking purposes.

Yesterday's rulings conclude that a spot high-school search in Sarnia
and one at a Calgary bus terminal were "unreasonably undertaken
because there was no proper justification.''

RCMP Sgt. Sylvie Tremblay says the force will review its use of 140
canine teams to ensure it complies with the judgment. Other police
forces were still reviewing the decision.

The first case stems from the arrival in 2002 of police and a canine
team at St. Patrick's high school in Sarnia.

Students were confined to classrooms for about two hours while a
drug-sniffing dog led officers to a pile of backpacks in an empty gym
- -- one containing bags of marijuana and some magic mushrooms.

A student identified only as A.M. was charged with possession of pot
for the purpose of trafficking in the school case, while Gurmakh
Kang-Brown was charged in the second case.