RCMP INFRINGE ON RIGHTS

The RCMP certainly got a lot of public attention with its " super" safety
check on Highway 102 near Enfield a week ago. Lots of great photo-ops for
newspaper photographers and especially for television cameras, eager to
catch on video our police at work for us.

As we sit comfortably in our homes, the supper hour news law enforcement in
the trenches, making our highways a safer place. It gives us a sense of
security. Great publicity for the cops perhaps, but it really provided
little else of value and indeed, and it raised several issues including the
legality of such an effort and whether police infringed on basic rights we
enjoy here in Canada.

Last Friday, 45 RCMP officers from around Nova Scotia descended on
unsuspecting motorists heading outbound on the 102. Along with drug dogs,
conservation officers and Transportation Department inspectors police
pulled over 10 cars at a time. As the Mounties examined safety stickers,
licence plates and such, safety inspectors looked for defective equipment
and conservation officers checked for hunting and weapons permits. We're
told the average car search lasted about five minutes. At least one rifle
was seized. Police also say they found some stolen ATVs. Dogs walked by
stopped cars and trucks, stopping if thier trained noses detected a whiff
of any illegal drugs. We know police did order two men out of one car and
found what were described as the remnants of joints were found in the ashtray.

The initiative was timed to mark the beginning of Safe Driving Week in
Canada. Even the RCMP's top guy in Nova Scotia, Chief Superintendent Ian
Atkins, was on hand to give a little pep talk to the troops, with the
cameras rolling of course. RCMP Staff Sgt. Keith McGuire later promised
this major checkpoint was the first of many. "After we get the bugs
straightened out, it's going to become a common practice in the province,
at least once a month in the Halifax metro area," he said. I wonder if he's
thinking about the possibility of a legal challenge when he refers to
getting the bugs straightened out.

Walter Thompson is a well known civil rights lawyer here in Nova Scotia. He
doesn't think this type of all inclusive road check would stand up to a
court challenge.

Thompson says the laws clearly spell out just how far police can go. "Cars
can be stopped for motor vehicles checks," Thompson told me this week, "But
they can't use that as an excuse for a more thorough search which we saw at
last Friday's checkpoint. For that they need a warrant, and for that they
need reasonable and probable grounds."

Some of those caught up in the police checkpoint were quoted offering thier
support for police actions, suggesting it was an inconvenience they thought
necessary in the name of safety. Daring to suggest otherwise might not have
been the prudent thing to say as an RCMP searched your vehicle.

Such an attitude was proof some people are ; sheep, conditioned to respond
without much thought. Where does it stop? Would it therefore be ok for
police to suddenly show up at your front door, demand the right to enter,
and look about for nothing in particular? We have seen an erosion of some
of our basic rights and freedoms since 9/11, so such a concern is a very
real issue, not the paranoid suspicions of the left. Police do not have the
right to search us " just because." As citizens of a free and democratic
society we have the right to a reasonable expectation of privacy. We want
to make it easy for police to do their job, but not at the expense of our
democratic freedoms.

Instead of putting in a great deal of effort on these one shot a month
public relations exercises, why not make sure there are more police
cruisers patrolling the highways, nailing speeders, tail-gaters and other
yahoos who are making our roads a hazard on a daily basis?

I recently drove from Halifax to Moncton on a Sunday and did not see a
single police car on the morning journey up or the afternoon trip back.
Gimmicks make great headlines.

I expect more than smoke and mirrors for my police tax dollars.

Rick Howe is the host of the radio talk show Hotline, weekdays from 10
a.m.-1 p.m. on AM 920 CJCH.