TREASURING OUR TRASH

It caused barely a ripple across the national landscape, but a ruling
last week by the Supreme Court significantly impacts the civil
liberties of all Canadians.

In upholding the conviction of a Calgary drug dealer, our nation's
top court ruled it was OK for police to sift through the trash of
average citizens looking for investigatory treasures.

In their unanimous decision, the seven-member court said Russell
Steven Patrick's rights weren't violated when cops went through his
garbage, finding the evidence they needed to obtain a search warrant.

But despite agreeing with her fellow benchers that Patrick's rights
weren't breached, Justice Rosalie Abella sounded a warning at giving
police unfettered access to the detritus of all Canadians.

While many would suggest Abella's comments were no more than an
exercise in legal academics, citizens should be as concerned as she
is at what amounts to an erosion of our privacy rights.

Abella agreed police should be able to analyze garbage left by the
curbside, but only if they have a reasonable suspicion a crime has
been, or will be committed.

In the case of Patrick, a former U of C swimmer and one-time Canadian
record holder in the 50-metre breaststroke, that suspicion existed, she noted.

Extending the powers of the police to search through anyone's garbage
once it is left out for city collection gives investigators a
potential view into the private lives of all citizens.

Of course most people would just shrug their shoulders and say "who
cares, I've got nothing to hide anyway," and "it's not like the
police have the manpower to start sifting though every garbage can in
the country."

But what if they did?

Technology certainly doesn't allow the state to rummage through every
trash bag in every town and city across this vast nation, at least not yet.

The future, however, is an unknown which could some day involve
machines that scan each piece of trash before it goes into the garbage truck.

Would Canadians then cry foul at the police analyzing ever bit of
waste tossed from a home, only to have the Patrick ruling thrown in our faces?

Similarly, those who claim they've got nothing to hide would bristle
at the thought of allowing the state to barge into their home to
conduct random searches, as they can now do with household waste.

As Abella noted, trash doesn't simply consist of items that no longer
have any value. "What we inelegantly call 'garbage' may contain the
most intensely personal and private information about ourselves," she wrote.

"The privacy of personal information emanating from the home, which
has been transformed into household waste and put out for disposal,
is entitled to protection from indiscriminate state intrusion," Abella said.

"Such information should not be seen to automatically lose its
'private' character simply because it is put outside for garbage disposal.

"Before the state can rummage through the personal information from
this ultimate zone of privacy, there should be, at the very least, a
reasonable suspicion that a crime has been or is likely to be committed."

There doesn't have to be a quantum leap in technology for police to
search through anyone's trash -- they can do that now with a pair of
surgical-gloved hands.

Everyone is now subject to the whim of bored cops with some spare
time on their hands to randomly select a curbside garbage bag and go hunting.

Of course, the vast majority of Canadians not involved in any
criminal behaviour couldn't care less.

"The police can go through my trash any time because I'm not doing
anything illegal," they'll say.

But even if police don't find evidence of wrongdoing, they will
gather information -- intelligence they can now choose to use in
whatever way they please.