SNIFF, YOU'RE ON CANDID CAMERA

Surveillance plan for Latin Quarter. Police will keep eye on area in
four-month pilot project

To try to curb drug trafficking around Berri Square and the Latin Quarter,
Ville Marie borough council last night voted to have police-monitored
surveillance cameras scattered over the neighbourhood.

Cameras are to be set up in the area bordered by Sherbrooke St. to the
north, Rene-Levesque Blvd. to the south, Berri St. to the east and Sanguinet
St.

The pilot project, dubbed Projet Robo-Cam, is to start on on May 1 and will
last about four months, after which the borough will evaluate the cameras'
worth.

Ville Marie city councillor Robert Laramee said preliminary discussions
about the project began in December 2002 and the pilot project will cost
less than $20,000.

Laramee wouldn't say how many cameras are being installed but said they are
designed to monitor the streets and signs will be used to alert people they
are being filmed. Only Montreal police officers will be able to view the
camera images.

Montreal police Commander Johanne Paquin, who heads Station 21 and the area
that will be under surveillance, declined to comment yesterday but the
police force is expected to discuss the project at a news conference today.

Consultations were held last summer by Quebec's Access to Information
Commission, Laramee said.

Councillor Louise O'Sullivan said she hoped for positive results from
project, but her concern was cameras would cause the drug problem to shift
into neighbouring boroughs.

"They are not going to stop selling drugs," she said.

Civil rights lawyer Julius Grey said the cameras may not be a violation of
anyone's privacy if there is good reason to put the cameras in a specific
area and the fact they are there is announced beforehand and well
publicized.

"I'm generally wary and fairly negative about these things. I cannot say in
every case that it would be illegal," Grey said, adding that he'd hope it
wouldn't become a general policy.

Ginette L'Heureux, a spokes-person for the Quebec Human Rights Commission,
said that there have to be strict rules for cameras and there should be
limited times when filming occurs.

Similar cameras are in use in Kelowna, B.C. and in Baie Comeau. Sherbrooke
is trying to bring back cameras to its downtown core this fall, but must
convince the privacy commission of its benefits. In 1992, the privacy
commission told Sherbrooke that it unnecessarily filmed citizens and
contravened Quebec's privacy legislation.