DRUG DOGS UPSET FERRY USERS

Ferry passenger Dave Aubin says he wants to mount a legal challenge to the
right of police to search the car decks of B.C. ferries.

On Tuesday, West Vancouver police used sniffer dogs to look for drugs in
vehicles as passengers sat unaware on the upper decks.

Officers seized seven kilograms of marijuana and made three arrests.

"I don't feel very comfortable jumping on a ferry when I may be held up for
investigation," said Aubin, speaking yesterday from on board the Spirit of
Vancouver Island, on his way home to Victoria from Tsawwassen.

"You have to have just and probable cause to stop somebody."

Civil liberties watchdogs say police conduct was out of line -- but police
say it all was above board.

Aubin noted that B.C. Ferries never warns passengers they could be subject
to police search and investigation.

He said he expects that kind of scrutiny at the border, because of
national-security issues.

"But I don't expect it when I board the ferry," he said. "I paid $61 to
climb on this thing, and I don't think I should be intimidated and be
subject to investigation."

Vancouver civil liberties lawyer Ron Skolrood agrees. He said that police
need reasonable and probable grounds to search a vehicle, and that drivers
have an expectation of privacy.

If ferry passengers park their cars on a car deck, the same legal test
still applies.

"I think a lot of members of the public are questioning how much privacy
they have," said Skolrood.

"People are looking at it and saying: 'Aren't I entitled to some degree of
privacy? Or is it whenever I step out of the confines of my house, I'm
going to be constantly subjected to surveillance?'

"I think people have a right to expect that they have a sphere of privacy
that surrounds them, except for legitimate bases."

West Van police are defending their actions, saying they didn't open vehicles.

"This was done in the least intrusive manner possible," said Staff-Sgt.
Douglas Bruce. "Probably 99 per cent of the people on the ferry . . .
[didn't] know we were there."

Bruce said B.C. Ferries is an extension of the highway system, so it's a
public place.

He said plainclothes officers walked the five dogs up and down the ferry
car decks until they "found a hit."

That gave police the grounds to investigate, arrest the suspects and search
the seized vehicles at the police station.

Five people who were smoking marijuana on the car decks had their pot
seized but were not charged, he said.

"We weren't going over there just looking for anybody. We were looking for
large quantities of drugs."

Bruce said cars are private property, but police do look in the windows --
which he called "the plain-view doctrine."

"We weren't looking in the windows. We were relying on the dogs," he said.

B.C. Ferries spokeswoman Deborah Dykes would not comment on the lack of
warnings about police activity on board.