DRUG SEARCHES JUSTIFIED, CROWN ATTORNEY INSISTS

Police Need To Execute Warrants 'At Any Time'

The Crown yesterday defended the merits of police search warrants which let
them give early wake-up calls to suspected drug dealers, but are currently
the subject of a constitutional challenge.

"This is an argument that has no merit. In the realm of drug offences,
we're in a very different world," said federal Crown attorney Anne Krahn.

"When you're involved in cocaine trafficking, there's every reason to
believe it's not a 9-to-5 job."

Defence lawyer Sheldon Pinx is arguing police drug searches are illegal in
a case this week which has put the practices of police and RCMP under the
microscope.

Queen's Bench Justice Perry Schulman has reserved his decision pending the
completion of the trial, expected by the end of the week. If he agrees the
search was illegal, the case and others like it could be thrown out of court.

Pinx's client, Wendell Duncan, was arrested two years ago after RCMP
searched his home at 12:25 a.m. and seized cocaine and $50,000 cash
allegedly from prior drug sales. Pinx claims the search was illegal, as is
the process used by police agencies to obtain drug search warrants.
Currently, the warrants issued by magistrate give police the authority to
search a property "at any time."

Pinx said magistrates are required by law to impose conditions upon police
which require them to execute the warrant between set hours, preferably
during the daytime.

He said it's ridiculous magistrates like the one in his case give police
"carte blanche" to act on the warrant whenever they feel like it.

But the Crown said yesterday police in this case acted appropriately,
noting they obtained the warrant at 11:30 p.m. after catching a man leaving
Duncan's residence with a large quantity of crack cocaine.

Police then executed the warrant one hour later.

"Because of the nature of cocaine trafficking, because of the nature of
this information, searching at night was justified in this case," said
Krahn. "This is not a case of the police running around willy nilly, all
hours of the night, rousing people out of bed."

Pinx did score a minor victory yesterday when Schulman made a preliminary
ruling on the warrant and found police did not provide enough information
to the magistrate to justify obtaining it.

Pinx now plans to argue the warrant is, therefore, illegal and the evidence
obtained by it should be thrown out of court, while awaiting the ruling on
his argument that the warrants are illegal to begin with.

The trial continues.