TOP COURT TRASHES PRIVACY ARGUMENT

Police Do Not Need Warrant To Search Suspect's Curb-Side Garbage, Judges Rule

When you put out the trash, don't expect a constitutional right to
privacy of the contents.

The Supreme Court of Canada unanimously ruled yesterday that police
can sift through garbage if it has been set out at the edge of your
property for municipal collection because "abandoned" goods do not
trigger Charter of Rights protection.

The decision rejected Calgarian Russell Patrick's quest to overturn
his drug conviction on grounds that police violated his right against
unreasonable search and seizure when they snatched four bags of
rubbish, obtaining enough evidence for a search warrant for his home
and then charged him with trafficking ecstasy.

The trash, which contained such things as drug recipes and receipts
from manufacturing supplies, was contained in an open receptacle at
the back of his property adjacent to an alley.

"When the garbage is placed at the lot line for collection, I believe
the householder has sufficiently abandoned his interest and control
to eliminate any objectively reasonable privacy interest," Justice
Ian Binnie wrote in the 7-0 ruling.

"The bags were unprotected and within easy reach of anyone walking by
in a public alleyway, including street people, bottle pickers, urban
foragers, nosy neighbours, and mischievous children, not to mention
dogs and assorted wildlife, as well as the garbage collectors and the police."

Patrick, a former swimming star who set a national and a world
record, was sentenced to four years in prison in 2006.

He has been out on bail pending an appeal of his sentence, which will
now go ahead after the Supreme Court refused to overturn his
conviction, his lawyer, Jennifer Ruttan, said.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association said there were significant
privacy rights at stake in the case because garbage contains
intensely personal information such as DNA and financial records and
even pill bottles revealing medical conditions.

Jonathan Lisus, an Association lawyer, said the ruling contained a
bright light for privacy rights because it acknowledged that garbage
is more than just garbage and that, in some cases, police would need
a judicial permit for access, just as they do to enter private
dwellings or listen to telephone conversations.

"Until the garbage is placed at or within reach of the lot line, the
householder retains an element of control over its disposition and
cannot be said to have unequivocally abandoned it, particularly if it
is placed on a porch or in a garage or within the immediate vicinity
of the dwelling," Binnie wrote.

He also stressed that the long arm of the law cannot be expanded by
using a "cherry picker" to reach across a property line and pluck
trash from the porch.

The ruling noted that combing through trash - a common police
practice - has been an important source of evidence that has helped
in murder investigations.