Pubdate: Fri, 13 Mar 2009 Source: Times & Transcript (Moncton, CN NK) Copyright: 2009 New Brunswick Publishing Company Contact: http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2660 Author: M. Buckley DRUG TRAFFICKER MUST LIKE CANADA To The Editor: Jamie Colbert must feel, as most of us do, that Canada is a wonderful country to live in after he was acquitted of possessing drugs for the purpose of trafficking by Provincial Court Judge Joseph Michaud despite being caught by an RCMP officer with a huge amount of marijuana in his possession. For those not familiar with the case, Colbert was pulled over near Salisbury about a year ago because the SUV he was driving had a burned out tail light. The officer wasn't satisfied with the answers to questions he put to Mr. Colbert and, as a consequence, suspected something illegal might be hidden in the vehicle. The officer asked for, and received, permission from Colbert to allow his drug sniffing dog Jasper to sniff around the SUV. Jasper's sniffing led to the discovery of $1.4 million worth of marijuana (155 lbs). Judge Michaud concluded that the police officer involved conducted the search on a "hunch based on intuition". This, regardless of the accuracy of the officer's hunch, did not give him the legal right to search the vehicle. Obtaining prior permission from the accused, according to the judge, was irrelevant. Judge Michaud ruled that the Mountie involved violated the accused's rights by detaining him without just cause, declared the marijuana to be "inadmissible as evidence in this case" and then acquitted Mr. Colbert of the charge. On reading more of your newspaper's account of the event I was amazed to learn that at least one other Provincial Court judge who heard a case very similar to this one in a Moncton courtroom ruled search evidence to be admissible because police had prior permission from the suspect. I would expect this type of courtroom drama to take place in a comic book setting or in an episode from The Dukes of Hazzard, not in real life. Canada is a wonderful place to live, but we are in the 21st century and still have legislation on the books enabling the events described above to take place. We have a lot of work to do before we market ourselves as a model for the rest of the world. M. Buckley, Riverview - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom