IS A DOG SNIFF A LEGAL SEARCH?

A case that began when officers showed up at a Ontario high school
with a drugsniffing dog is about to test the limits of police powers
in Canada.

The Crown appeal, to be heard today by the Supreme Court of Canada,
will help determine whether police can use sniffer dogs to conduct
random searches of schools and other public places.

To the Ontario Court of Appeal, there was a whiff of illegality about
the incident. "This was a warrantless, random search with the entire
student body held in detention," the court said in a ruling last year.

But the Crown disputes there was ever any search. "A dog sniff alone
is not a search; it only supplies information that may lead to one,"
they said.