HUMAN RIGHTS WORKER LOSES HIS HAIR TEST CASE

A dreadlocked Toronto human rights worker has lost a "test case"
against Canadian border officials after claiming he was targeted for
a Pearson airport drug search because of his hairstyle. Paul
Richards, who works for the Ontario Human Rights Commission, claims
he was searched in July 2003 while returning from Jamaica because he
fit the profile of "a drug smuggler as a black man with dreadlocks
coming from a source country."

He filed an unsuccessful complaint to the Canadian Human Rights
Commission, which led to a failed appeal to the Federal Court of
Canada, which issued a ruling two weeks ago.

Richards, in court documents, alleged he was questioned three times
by different Customs officers about his vacation, where he stayed,
what he did and if he was "gainfully employed."

He said the questioning ceased after he told officers he worked for
the province.

Richards alleged the officers' actions were based on "stereotypical
assumptions about the criminality of African Canadian males."

"To single out and treat someone differently because of how they look
is racial profiling," his lawyer, Marie Chen, of the African Canadian
Legal Clinic, alleged in court last month.

The court said Richards' complaint was probed and dismissed by a CHRC
investigator, who ruled Customs officers are entitled to keep the
country safe and ask questions of travellers to do their jobs.

The CHRC said adherents of the Rastafarian faith use marijuana and
officers can ask if any was being brought into the country.

Federal court Deputy Judge Max Teitelbaum wrote Richards admitted he
looks like "a member of a religious group that uses marijuana as part
of its religious practice.

"The officers who interviewed him were trying to determine if he was
bringing marijuana or drugs with him to Canada," Teitelbaum ruled,
adding if Customs officers didn't ask questions or inspect Richards'
carry-on luggage they "would have failed to perform their duty."

Richards' refused comment Friday but Chen said he's considering his options.

Chen, who called the complaint a "test case," said it's the first
case she knows of in Canada where the dreadlocked appearance was used
as a defence.