DOGS TO CARRY ON SNIFFING AT AIRPORTS

OTTAWA -- Dogs will continue doing random searches at airports and the
government is considering new ways to use them elsewhere, Public
Safety Minister Stockwell Day said yesterday.

With Shelly the chocolate Labrador retriever at his side, Day was at
the Ottawa airport to warn the public that two rulings from the
Supreme Court of Canada last week do not amount to a licence to carry
illicit drugs and other contraband in public places.

The decisions cleared an Ontario high-school student and a Vancouver
man of drug charges on the grounds that random dog searches violated
the Charter of Rights protection against unreasonable search and
seizure in a school and bus depot, respectively.

Police will persist in using the dogs for routine searches at
airports, border stations and federal prisons, Day said. "I am sending
a message very clearly, that we will continue to use sniffer dogs in
these facilities,"he said.

Day acknowledged, however, that other locations, such as schools and
bus stations, are more of a problem.

Day hinted the government is prepared to craft a new law that revives
police powers weakened by the Supreme Court, but he did not elaborate.