Pubdate: Sat, 06 Apr 2002
Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)
Copyright: 2002 The Ottawa Citizen
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/326
Author: Shirley Mask Connolly, The Ottawa Citizen
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?135 (Drug Education)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/raids.htm (Drug Raids)

CALL OFF THE DOGS

It's time to call off the dogs in our schools and bring in people to talk 
to our youths about the law.

As a member of a school council, my opposition and another parent's has 
meant that canine units have not been used in the Ottawa high school which 
my children attend. This is a disruptive, and for students fearful of dogs, 
very frightening procedure.

The canine unit is usually employed as "part of an overall school-based 
drug/alcohol prevention program" and to supposedly "promote the range of 
police services available within the schools." Apparently it is a "rare 
occasion that a police investigation necessitates the use of a canine 
specific to a drug investigation" -- which is the only acceptable reason 
for using the canine unit. Without reasonable and probable grounds, I feel 
these searches constitute an unreasonable exercise of search and seizure.

I would prefer to see the canine unit being redirected into something 
positive such as police-run education programs geared at informing students 
about the legal ramifications of drug and alcohol abuse as well as related 
crime. Our young people are not as well-informed as we might think.

Shirley Mask Connolly, Ottawa
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