DRUGS USE ON BUSES UNACCEPTABLE

Minutes before he was savagely slain on a Greyhound bus last week, Tim
McLean was busy texting some friends, and reports are that in one of
his text messages, he mentioned that other passengers on the bus were
taking ecstasy.

No link has been drawn between his death and illicit drug use. But, in
any case, let us assume he was accurate in his observation.

Last May 1, days after the Supreme Court ruled that sniffer dogs could
not be randomly employed in bus stations, Public Safety Minister
Stockwell Day said he did not like the ruling. Day held a press
conference at the time to reinforce the idea that just because the
court had ruled that random searches at schools and bus stations
violated people's charter rights, it did not mean Canadians have carte
blanche to walk around with drugs on them. Apparently, however, they
think they do.

McLean's bus was bound from Edmonton to Winnipeg. Had sniffer dogs
been patrolling the Edmonton bus station, they might have been able to
nab those individuals who felt they had a right to carry drugs in a
public place and to use them on a bus. Greyhound's policy states: "We
have a zero tolerance for alcohol, drugs, weapons and unruly behaviour."

It would be far easier to adhere to that policy if sniffer dogs were
still used at bus stations. The driver cannot search passengers as
they board, nor can he keep his eye on everything the passengers are
doing in their seats while he is driving and his attention is focused
on the road, especially at night when the lights in the bus have been
dimmed.

Words such as Day's are meaningless if they cannot be backed up by
enforcement action, and the Supreme Court's ruling has severely
weakened police departments' power to enforce zero tolerance policies.
Day said in May that both the Justice and Public Safety departments
would be looking at other means to prevent people from carrying drugs
in public places.

Whatever those means are, they should be implemented immediately. The
scenario of bus passengers freely doing drugs in their seats is
completely unacceptable.