SEARCH BROKE LAW - GROUP

Civil Liberties Branch Files Police Act Complaint Over Rave Strip Search,
Wants Outside Review

A civil liberties group wants an independent investigation of Halifax
Regional Police's strip search of ravers last month.

The Nova Scotia chapter of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association says the
Jan. 29 search of about 50 people at the Underground dance club on Maitland
Street was unnecessary and unreasonable. The association has written to
Police Chief David McKinnon filing a complaint under the Police Act and
asking for an investigation.

Civil Liberties Association director J. Walter Thompson said the searches
were improper.

"It strikes us as being a pretty significant violation of some fundamental
civil liberties," said Thompson.

"The Halifax Regional Police, in our view, flagrantly broke the law and
invaded the civil liberties of those they searched at the rave," Thompson
writes in his letter to McKinnon. "There is not even a pretense of
reasonable grounds in this case."

Thompson said the strip search was unnecessary because the quantities of
drugs the police were looking for would have been found with an ordinary
pat-down.

The complaint stems from the strip searches of about 50 people at the
Underground during a police drug raid minutes before the Repercussionz rave
was due to begin.

Acting on tips from three unknown informants, police obtained a warrant to
search Underground for the illegal drugs ecstasy and GHB, commonly known as
the date-rape drug.

According to the warrant, the drugs were supposed to be hidden above a
ceiling tile.

People inside the dance club, mostly club employees and volunteers for the
all-night dance party, were taken individually inside male and female
washrooms and strip-searched. Some of those searched were teenagers. One
22-year-old female employee told The Daily News she was instructed by police
to pull her underwear down and bend over. Aimee Kindervater said she is glad
a complaint has been filed.

"It looks good on the cops," she said.

Police say proper procedures were followed during the searches. A few grams
of marijuana and some unidentified pills were seized. No charges were laid.

Police spokesman Const. Frank Bowes confirmed the letter was received by the
department, but said no decision has been made on how to proceed with the
complaint.

Under the Police Act, a complaint can be investigated within the police
department. The chief also has the option of asking an outside investigator
to examine the case. The complaint can be resolved informally, but if that
is not suitable to either party, an appeal can be launched to the Nova
Scotia Police Commission.

Thompson said the police must go outside their own department to investigate
the matter.

"We think it is very important to make the point that arbitrary searches are
not to be tolerated, much less condoned," he said. "We feel we have to make
a point."