Quote of the Day:
"We have these rights, and we must not give them up, even if, at times, it's a little inconvenient and a little cumbersome and the odd guy with some drugs goes free." Larry Myers, Defense Attorney for Ajitpal Singh Sekhon as reported in this Globe and Mail story.

In January 2005, Mr. Sekhon's truck was searched at a border crossing by Canadian customs officials, who found a 'hidden compartment' which contained 50 kilograms of cocaine. Mr. Sekhon was acquitted last week by BC Provincial Court Judge Ellen Gordon, who ruled the search was unconstitutional because customs officials failed to obtain judicial authorization before dismantling Mr. Sekhom's truck. Also, according to Judge Gordon, customs officials further violated Mr. Sekhom's constitutional rights by preventing him from leaving during the early stages of the search and did not allow him access to legal counsel until after the cocaine had been discovered.

This is a complicated issue. In her wisdom, Judge Gordon determined that the border guard's decision to search the truck was based on "a lucky hunch" rather than 'reasonable grounds'. This is a helpful distinction and is, I'm sure, appreciated by the veteran customs officer who ordered the search, just as we all enjoy others telling us how to do our jobs.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm delighted to see someone taking an interest in overseeing Canada customs officials defending us from drugs, as well as 'obscene' porn books imported by a bookstore in Vancouver, and those evil 13-year olds bringing in oil paintings without a signed appraisal from the artist (and yes I'm still bitter about spending over $65 to satisfy Canada customs that the painting I bought in the UK for $85 was indeed only worth $85...).

But even I'd rather see customs get nailed for the cars and trucks it dismantles and the people it holds incommunicado without finding drugs. Because, as I see it and if this decision holds up, this is a lose-lose scenario for law-abiding, taxpaying Canadians. On one hand, we can put up with more delays at the border as customs officials cover their butts, ahem, I mean fulfill their legal obligations by seeking warrants. And even though Mr. Myers assures us a telephone warrant can be obtained in four or five minutes, multiply that by 20 cars a day for however many border crossings there are and you get a whole lot of man-hours being used (and paid for by taxpayers) by both judicial and customs officials to distinguish 'lucky hunches' from 'reasonable doubt'. The other option, of course, is even worse. We can just let the Ajitpal Singh Sekhons of the world drive right on through our borders with however many kilos of cocaine that they can conceal in their vehicles.

As I say, it's a complicated issue, made even more so now by last week's decision. I'm unhappy to read about a drug smuggler going free after trying to bring 50 kilos of coke into Canada. But I'm really pissed about reading the comments aimed at law-abiding Canadians by the smuggler's counsel who should have had the sense or decency to shut up rather than exulting in the system his client (ab)used to avoid criminal consequences for his actions...