Pubdate: Thu, 07 Dec 2006
Source: Sudbury Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2006 The Sudbury Star
Contact:  http://www.thesudburystar.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/608

POLICE LEARN TOUGH LESSON

Police are entrusted with powers of authority that few others in 
society have. There are, however, limits to those powers and on 
Tuesday we saw what happens when police do not adhere to these limits.

Suspects go free.

In this case, a man who was arrested on Big Nickel Mine Road in 
September 2005 carrying a duffel bag containing six kilograms of 
opium was cleared of criminal charges after a Sudbury judge ruled 
police violated his rights under Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The violation centered around the methods police used to search the 
man's duffel bag and their failure to read him his rights. Police had 
responded to a report of a suspicious, well-dressed man at another 
location and at some point, they came across a 54-year-old man 
hitchhiking on Big Nickel Mine Road. They offered to drive him to 
several destinations, including a bus depot or the western limits of 
the city so he could continue hitchhiking. But before the could get 
into the cruiser, police told him, they would have to search him. The 
opium was discovered during that search.

The nuances of searching people and when to read them their rights 
are the stuff of courtroom legends and Hollywood productions. But 
when it comes to real-life situations, we would hope the police know 
where the legal line is.

In this case, the judge was heavily critical of the situation in 
which the police came to discover the drugs. Said Superior Court 
Justice Patricia Hennessy in dismissing the criminal charges: "There 
were numerous and multiple breaches" of the man's rights. The 
officers, Hennessy said, should have read the man his rights before 
searching his bag.

The "entire conversation," said Hennessy, "seems contrived to get 
(the person) into the cruiser in order to search the bag. There was 
no legitimate investigative purpose for the search."

In other words, police essentially went fishing. That they reeled in 
a good catch in $600,000 worth of opium - which can be cut to make 
many different kinds of drugs, including heroin - was fortunate. That 
the drugs are off the streets is fortunate. That no one will face 
justice over such a large amount of drugs is very unfortunate.
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