RIGHT TO PRIVACY IS IMPORTANT

A guaranteed way to increase arrests and convictions for drug possession,
gang membership, illegal weapon ownership and other crimes is to give our
police free rein over all aspects of our lives.

If we as a society decide that eliminating these kinds of crime is more
important than our right to privacy, then we cannot complain if the
authorities frisk us as we walk down the street, search our homes without
notice or cause, or question us about why we're keeping the friends we do.

We have rightly not traded away our rights to privacy in this manner -- it
is simply a price that most of us are not willing to pay in free society.

It is no answer to say that if one is not breaking the law they should have
nothing to hide. Fortunately, we do not live in a police state. Privacy is
a right extended to all of us, not just to those accused of crime.

Privacy is protected not so we can do something wrong or dirty, but because
we value our physical and intellectual freedoms and autonomy. I may have
nothing illegal to hide in my house, but I still do not want the police or
others coming in to make sure I'm not doing something illegal or morally
questionable without reasonable grounds. I have the right not to have my
home searched at random as much as a person who may have broken the law does.

The police have the difficult task of protecting society and enforcing our
laws. It sometimes seems that their hard work is for naught, that our
judges undo the work that police do to catch those involved in crime.
Judges no more want to exclude evidence than police want it to be excluded.
The balancing act that judges carry out is a critical check on police
power, to ensure that all of our rights are protected.

If evidence obtained as a result of an illegal search was always allowed to
be used in court, we'd not be far from a society allowing the authorities
to frisk us in public places or randomly or search our homes at will.

The police are acting in good faith for our collective protection, as is
our judiciary. Do police make mistakes? Absolutely. Do judges? Absolutely.
Does our collective right and desire for privacy need protection? Absolutely.

KEN MANDZUIK
President, Manitoba Association for Rights and Liberties Winnipeg