CUSTOMS PLANTED POT, GUNS ON TRAVELLERS

Practice Used To Train Dogs Violated Policy

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."

Details of the violations were not provided.

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.

McCormick 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 hadn't seen marijuana before, and said yesterday 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.

Almost a month after the incident, the department issued another memo
warning against the practice.

"Once again it has come to our attention that some detector
dog-handlers are using travellers to carry drug hides," says the April
4 circular, which had to be signed by every dog-handler. "Under no
circumstances shall members of the travelling public be used to carry
drug hides."

A spokesperson for the department declined to comment yesterday on
whether any disciplinary measures were taken against McGee, one of
about 40 Canada Customs dog-handlers across the country.

Collette Gentes-Hawn would only confirm that he is still employed at
Canada Customs as a dog-handler. She added that the department did
apologize to McCormick.

In previous violations of the policy, the planted dope was never
picked up by passengers, she said from Ottawa.

"There were instances where this had been done but never were the
drugs put in a bag and taken out of the bag later. Never had it gone
to an individual.