CUSTOMS PLANTS DOPE ON GRANNY

Memo Shows Drugs, Firearms Planted On Unwitting Travellers To Test
Airport's Security

Halifax (CP) -- Canada Customs employees have planted illegal drugs and
firearms in the luggage of unsuspecting travellers at Canadian airports
since at least 1998 - in violation of federal policy, newly released
records show.

The planted material, intended to help train scent dogs, became such a
problem that the department issued a memo two years ago reminding
dog-handlers that the procedure is strictly forbidden.

"Under no circumstances should members of the travelling public ever be
used to carry hides (planted drugs and firearms) when conducting training
sessions with the detector dog," says the July 28, 1998, warning from a
senior enforcement official.

"This practice is inappropriate and potentially very embarrassing to the
department and it must stop immediately."

However, the memo - part of a file released under the Access to Information
Act - did not stop the forbidden practice.

On March 8 this year, a department dog-handler planted an ounce of
marijuana in a duffle bag owned by Jackie McCormick, a 70-year-old
Fredericton woman returning from a Florida vacation.

Don McGee put the dope in the luggage at the Moncton, N.B., airport to help
train Jazz, his Labrador retriever, documents show.

But because of a communications breakdown, the duffle bag managed to slip
through without McGee retrieving the dope. McCormick unwittingly brought it
back to her Fredericton home.

She discovered the grass, enclosed in a standard evidence bag used by
Canada Customs, when she unpacked the next day. She panicked because she
thought she had been used as an unwitting drug courier from Florida.

McCormick immediately called the Fredericton police, who contacted Canada
Customs and returned the marijuana, which had been issued by Health Canada
for dog-training purposes.

McCormick, whom had never seen marijuana previously, said Wednesday she and
her husband are still upset about the incident.

"We were kind of afraid that somebody else might have put it in even in St.
Petersburg (Fla.)," she said. "And then they may, because your name and
everything is on the luggage, somebody could come looking for it."

Canada Customs has since contacted her, but has never apologized or offered
compensation, she said.

"I just hate to let them off with it because they're very cocky," she said
from Fredericton.