SNIFFER DOGS WILL CONTINUE RANDOM AIRPORT SEARCHES

OTTAWA - Canadians will continue to see scent-tracking dogs doing
random searches at airports and lawmakers are considering new ways for
canines to sniff out other public places, says Public Safety Minister
Stockwell Day.

With a trained Labrador retriever named Shelly at his side, Day held a
news conference Wednesday 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 sniffer-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.