PRIVACY OF HOME NOT SACROSANCT: JUDGE

The right to privacy in one's home is not absolute, the Supreme Court
of Canada said Wednesday in a ruling that allowed police to conscript
a Calgary power company in a growop investigation.

In a divided decision, the court split into three camps on whether it
violates a consumer's constitutional right to privacy to force
commercial service providers to help police when they do not have
search warrants. "The Constitution does not cloak the home in an
impenetrable veil of privacy," Justice Marie Deschamps wrote in the
lead opinion.

The decision overturns an Alberta Court of Appeal victory for Daniel
Gomboc and restores his earlier convictions for growing and selling
marijuana. Calgary police, while investigating another matter in
Gomboc's neighbourhood in 2004, detected the smell of a marijuana grow
operation and noticed condensation on his windows. The police then
asked power supplier Enmax to install a smart metre, to get a printout
of five days of power consumption at the home. The officers used the
information to obtain a search warrant, seizing 165 kilograms of bulk
marijuana.