HEAT'S ON COURT NOW

Drug Case Ruling Due Friday

The supreme Court of Canada is set to rule Friday on the "heated" case
of a drug dealer who claims the Mounties invaded his privacy. Walter
Tessling insists the RCMP violated his charter rights when they used
an infrared aerial camera to detect excess heat in his Kingsville,
Ont. home. Temperatures were soaring to keep up his large marijuana
growing operation.

Acknowledging his client was engaging in illegal activity, Tessling's
lawyer Tom Costaris said the case is about state intrusion and has
implications for all law-abiding Canadians. "By not obtaining a search
warrant, in essence they were on a fishing expedition and that's
exactly what the rest of us as citizens are irked by," he said.

SOMETHING 'NEFARIOUS'

"In my view there's something nefarious and disconcerting when you can
be in your own home being under surveillance by police and not know
it."

Costaris said what goes on inside the home is "protected, private
activity." Canadians who run indoor saunas or pottery kilns could
become victims of police searches -- and he worried the situation will
worsen as technology advances.

Justice department lawyer Jim Leising, fighting to overturn the
Ontario appeals court decision that deemed the surveillance tactic
"almost Orwellian," said imposing limits on infrared surveillance will
shred an important investigative tool for police. The only people who
see fly-past, heat-sensing technology as an intrusion are pot growers,
he suggested.