CLASS ACTION ON GROW OPS?

An appeals court decision striking down Surrey's municipal grow op
detection program could pave the way for a class-action lawsuit
involving the city of Coquitlam.

Randy Manzardo, a Tri-City resident and business owner who has signed
on with the lawsuit, said he expects the recent court decision to bode
well for his case against the city, the RCMP and BC Hydro.

The B.C. Court of Appeals found that Surrey's grow op program, which
allowed police and city officials to visit homes with unusually high
power consumption, violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The
program is similar to one in the city of Coquitlam, which Manzardo
said unfairly targeted his home.

"We have been waiting to see what happens with the Surrey case for
some time," Manzardo told The Tri-City News. "[The lawsuit] still has
to be approved by the courts. They have to allow the action to proceed."

In 2008, Manzardo received word from the city that a grow op
inspection team would be visiting his home. If he did not comply, he
was told, his power would be shut off.

Police quickly determined that there was no evidence of a grow op on
the premises but city inspectors found several building code
violations related to a recent kitchen renovation.

Bringing the building up to code cost Manzardo between $7,000 and
$9,000. While he supports the marijuana grow op inspection teams, he
believes only police should be allowed to search the home.

"I would happily let the police in," he said. "But once they see there
has never been a grow op, they should leave. They didn't have to go
through my whole house."

Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart was contacted by The Tri-City News but
was unable to comment by deadline.

But he told CBC earlier this week that council has made changes to its
inspection process since the incident at Manzardo's home.

"I know that as council, we've adopted a more rational approach to
this in that we are now only looking at the electrical risk," he said.

In the Surrey case, Chief Justice Lance Finch wrote in the ruling that
the home inspections were extremely invasive.

"There is a 'hierarchy of places,' atop of which is the home," Finch
wrote. "Importantly for our purposes, the hierarchy decreases in the
level of expected privacy as one moves from the home to the perimeter
space around the home, to commercial space, to private cars, to
schools, and then, at the bottom, to prisons."

He said the grow op inspection teams infringe on Section 8 of the
Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which protects the public from
unreasonable search and seizure.

- - with files from Kevin Diakiw