Pubdate: Fri, 13 Dec 2002
Source: Daily News, The (CN NS)
Copyright: 2002 The Daily News
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/halifax/dailynews/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/179
Author: Rick Howe

RCMP INFRINGE ON RIGHTS

The RCMP certainly got a lot of public attention with its " super" safety 
check on Highway 102 near Enfield a week ago. Lots of great photo-ops for 
newspaper photographers and especially for television cameras, eager to 
catch on video our police at work for us.

As we sit comfortably in our homes, the supper hour news law enforcement in 
the trenches, making our highways a safer place. It gives us a sense of 
security. Great publicity for the cops perhaps, but it really provided 
little else of value and indeed, and it raised several issues including the 
legality of such an effort and whether police infringed on basic rights we 
enjoy here in Canada.

Last Friday, 45 RCMP officers from around Nova Scotia descended on 
unsuspecting motorists heading outbound on the 102. Along with drug dogs, 
conservation officers and Transportation Department inspectors police 
pulled over 10 cars at a time. As the Mounties examined safety stickers, 
licence plates and such, safety inspectors looked for defective equipment 
and conservation officers checked for hunting and weapons permits. We're 
told the average car search lasted about five minutes. At least one rifle 
was seized. Police also say they found some stolen ATVs. Dogs walked by 
stopped cars and trucks, stopping if thier trained noses detected a whiff 
of any illegal drugs. We know police did order two men out of one car and 
found what were described as the remnants of joints were found in the ashtray.

The initiative was timed to mark the beginning of Safe Driving Week in 
Canada. Even the RCMP's top guy in Nova Scotia, Chief Superintendent Ian 
Atkins, was on hand to give a little pep talk to the troops, with the 
cameras rolling of course. RCMP Staff Sgt. Keith McGuire later promised 
this major checkpoint was the first of many. "After we get the bugs 
straightened out, it's going to become a common practice in the province, 
at least once a month in the Halifax metro area," he said. I wonder if he's 
thinking about the possibility of a legal challenge when he refers to 
getting the bugs straightened out.

Walter Thompson is a well known civil rights lawyer here in Nova Scotia. He 
doesn't think this type of all inclusive road check would stand up to a 
court challenge.

Thompson says the laws clearly spell out just how far police can go. "Cars 
can be stopped for motor vehicles checks," Thompson told me this week, "But 
they can't use that as an excuse for a more thorough search which we saw at 
last Friday's checkpoint. For that they need a warrant, and for that they 
need reasonable and probable grounds."

Some of those caught up in the police checkpoint were quoted offering thier 
support for police actions, suggesting it was an inconvenience they thought 
necessary in the name of safety. Daring to suggest otherwise might not have 
been the prudent thing to say as an RCMP searched your vehicle.

Such an attitude was proof some people are ; sheep, conditioned to respond 
without much thought. Where does it stop? Would it therefore be ok for 
police to suddenly show up at your front door, demand the right to enter, 
and look about for nothing in particular? We have seen an erosion of some 
of our basic rights and freedoms since 9/11, so such a concern is a very 
real issue, not the paranoid suspicions of the left. Police do not have the 
right to search us " just because." As citizens of a free and democratic 
society we have the right to a reasonable expectation of privacy. We want 
to make it easy for police to do their job, but not at the expense of our 
democratic freedoms.

Instead of putting in a great deal of effort on these one shot a month 
public relations exercises, why not make sure there are more police 
cruisers patrolling the highways, nailing speeders, tail-gaters and other 
yahoos who are making our roads a hazard on a daily basis?

I recently drove from Halifax to Moncton on a Sunday and did not see a 
single police car on the morning journey up or the afternoon trip back. 
Gimmicks make great headlines.

I expect more than smoke and mirrors for my police tax dollars.

Rick Howe is the host of the radio talk show Hotline, weekdays from 10 
a.m.-1 p.m. on AM 920 CJCH.
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