VEHICLE SEARCHES AT BORDER ARE ILLEGAL, JUDGE RULES

VANCOUVER -- Canada's border guards fear they will have to
significantly change procedures after a B.C. provincial court judge
threw out a drug-smuggling case because there had been no search warrant.

The Canada Border Service Agency is appealing the ruling by B.C.
provincial court Judge Ellen Gordon last week that acquitted Ajitpal
Singh Sekhon of importing 50 kilograms of cocaine into Canada.

The ruling by Gordon is believed to be the first of its kind in
Canada. Gordon ruled that border officers -- who routinely question
travellers and search their vehicles -- violated three sections of
the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms when they interrogated
and dismantled the truck Sekhon was driving without a search warrant.
The ruling meant the drugs seized were excluded from the evidence
against Sekhon.

According to Gordon's reasons for judgment, Sekhon, a Canadian
citizen, tried to enter Canada at a border crossing near Vancouver on
Jan. 25, 2005.

The border guard decided Sekhon was suspiciously tense and sent him
to be questioned in the customs office.

With the help of a drug-sniffing dog, the ruling says, guards found a
false compartment below the truck bed, at which point Sekhon was
informed that he would be detained and that he had the right to legal counsel.

Custom Excise Union spokesman Steve Pellerin-Fowlie said the
implications of the court ruling are huge for the country's 10,000
border service officers.

"This is unprecedented -- I've never heard of any border operation
requiring a search warrant. This would be such a break in procedure
and I don't know how it would be handled."

In her ruling, Gordon said the search of the vehicle was
unconstitutional because the officers acted on their own without
judicial authorization.

"This is a wholesale change in procedure," said Pellerin-Fowlie. "It
would require hundreds if not thousands more people."