SCHOOL TRUSTEES WITNESS DRUG DOG'S SKILLS FIRST HAND

Drugs were found hidden in the boardroom of the Halton District School
Board's administrative building in Burlington -- but not to worry, it was a
specially-trained dog that uncovered the illicit item during a demonstration.

Drug dog Dax and his handler, Chris Sharpe of the Canada Customs and
Revenue Agency (CCRA) out of Pearson Airport in Toronto, attended a recent
school board meeting. They were there to show trustees and residents in the
audience how a drug dog is trained and makes its way around a potential
drug scene.

Halton board officials were being re-introduced to the CCRA and their dogs
for a specific reason. It has been a couple of years since teams of trained
canines and their human handlers have been invited to roam the halls of the
region's 16 public high schools to search for illegal drugs.

However, the board, police and CCRA have agreed to renew the partnership
under the Safe School Canine Initiative. The parties expect to resume
searches during the current school year. For three years the initiative was
known in Halton as Project Hall Walk; it was put under review in 2000. Only
small amounts of drugs were ever found during the searches of high schools
and no criminal charges were laid.

On this night Dax, a 9 1/2 year old Golden Retriever who has $50 million in
seizures to his credit, was led around on a leash by Sharpe as the former
prepared to sniff out a planted drug.

Det. Al Albano of Halton Regional Police's Drug and Morality Bureau also
attended the board meeting. He brought a satchel that contained marijuana.

Within 20 seconds of Sharpe giving Dax the order to seek, the dog roamed
and then stopped, jumped up a couple of times to point out the satchel,
which was lying on an elevated ledge, and then sat still in front of it to
signify he had found something.

Trustees also watched an instructional video about how the dogs are chosen
and trained. They learned that dogs in the detector dog service have 20,000
times the scent receptors of humans; it enables them to detect traces of
substances in concentrations of less than 10 parts per billion.

Only one out of every 10 canine candidates is accepted for detector dog
training by the CCRA. Golden and Labrador Retrievers are the main breeds
used. There are only about 40 dog/handler teams in Canada that are employed
to sniff out drugs, firearms and explosives at airports and seaports across
the country. Nine of those teams are at Pearson Airport.

The dogs are not police dogs in the sense they will protect their handler,
said Sharpe.

"This is about them having fun. They're cute and cuddly. They have no
interest in protecting you. If I drop the leash, he'll continue searching"
even if an officer is being attacked, he noted.

When the new drug dog program begins in Halton schools, there will be some
differences from the old one.

Whereas Project Hall Walk provided a fair warning to parents, students and
school administrators of an impending search, a general notice perhaps a
couple of weeks in advance, this time only the principal and vice-principal
at a school willing to participate in a search will know about it ahead of
time. Not only will teams of at least two dogs and their handlers walk
school hallways but they will search around cars in the school's parking
lot, too.

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