TEEN SMELLED GUILTY

At an Ottawa high school, a drug dog's bark is final.

Fifteen-year-old Christopher Laurin was suspended for two days on Tuesday
because an Ottawa Police dog indicated it smelled pot on the student's jacket.

But Laurin had no drugs on him. No one else, not the St. Matthew high
school principal nor his parents, could sniff any scent of pot on the coat.

It didn't matter. When the dog barks, the student pays the price.

"He didn't have any drugs on his jacket. He didn't do anything wrong. What
if he had left his coat in someone's car, and that person had a joint?"
asked Michel Laurin, Chris' father.

"I know they're trying to do the right thing, but suspension for a coat?"
he said.

Const. Paul Caissie, of Toronto Police Dog Services, said detector dogs can
pick up the smell of residue amounts of marijuana that's a couple of months
old.

"If the detector dog has his training standards in order, it's quite
probable and accepted to believe what that dog did," he said. "I would
believe it from my experiences with my K-9.

"But you don't just base it totally on just the dog. You have to have other
indicators present."

Caissie said he and his drug-detector dog, Bandit, are called into Toronto
schools all the time.

"We don't search students," Caissie said.

A spokesman at the Toronto District School Board said no similar
suspensions have been levied at Hogtown schools.