HANGER OUT TO LUNCH ON SUPREMES

Dear Editor:
The column from Art Hanger in the May 14 Cochrane Eagle highlights
perfectly why we need the Constitution and the Charter of Rights and
Freedoms and the Supreme Court. We need it to protect us from people
such as Mr. Hanger. In his column, ironically entitled "Basic logic
escapes six justices in two drug cases' he uses misinformation to
underpin his tortured logic when he asserts falsely that the
decisions made by the Supreme justices were illogical and that they
were about drugs.

Nothing could be further from the truth. The decisions were about
freedom, not about drugs.

The Supremes decided, correctly, that a random search by a police
officer (a police dog is an officer; if you hit one, you are charged
with assaulting a police officer) which intrudes on the privacy of an
otherwise unremarkable, peaceful citizen going about his business is
unacceptable. The reasons for the search given by the cops in both
cases were mere window dressing. The Supremes decided that the
reasons given were unbelievable and that a reasonable person would
find such a search unreasonable.

If the Supremes had decided otherwise, the cops could just walk up to
anyone and frisk them. Ask yourself how you would feel about having
this done to you.

This brings us back to the diatribe written by Mr. Hanger. It is full
of nasty, insulting language and fearmongering. If we are to believe
him, the entire future of our country is imperilled by this decision,
and the Parliament must do everything it can to overcome this
"travesty" and make it possible once again for citizens to be
searched randomly by the police.

What they really want is to take away our freedoms. To travel this
path is insanity, and those who espouse this are the truly dangerous
ones. When the law cannot be enforced except through depriving us of
our freedoms, then the law must be changed.

Hanger's pretzel logic must be seen for what it is: an attempt to
ramp up the fear factor, increase our stress levels, reduce our
freedoms, and to make us less safe. I encourage everyone to vote ABC
in the next federal election -- Anyone But Conservative.

Bruce Symington