COURT WON'T RE-HEAR CASE ON POLICE SEARCHES

WINNIPEG - The Supreme Court of Canada will not re-hear a case
involving how far police can go in searching and questioning suspects.

Canada's highest court ruled in July that police officers across the
country can no longer play hunches and go on "fishing expeditions" for
evidence when questioning potential suspects.

But Manitoba's Crown had asked the court for a new hearing, claiming
the ruling is unclear as to how far police can go.

The Supreme Court disagreed, saying Wednesday its decision speaks for
itself and won't be expanded on.

This case was the first time the high court had examined an everyday
police practice that many law officers and prosecutors take for granted.

The Supreme Court's decision overturned the Manitoba Court of Appeal
and ruled Winnipeg police had no right to search the pocket of a
native man found walking downtown in December 2000.

Although police found 27.5 grams of marijuana on Phillip Mann, the
evidence has been discarded on the grounds it was illegally obtained.
As a result, Mann was cleared of drug trafficking charges.

"The search here went beyond what was required to mitigate concerns
about officer safety and reflects a serious breach of (Mann's)
protection against unreasonable search and seizure," Justice Frank
Iacobucci wrote in a majority decision that divided the high court
5-2.