HIGH COURT RULES TRASH NOT PRIVATE

When you put out the trash, don't expect a constitutional right to
privacy of the contents.

The Supreme Court of Canada unanimously ruled yesterday that police
can sift through garbage if it has been set out at the edge of your
property for municipal collection because "abandoned" goods do not
trigger Charter of Rights protection.

The decision rejected Calgarian Russell Patrick's quest to overturn
his drug conviction on grounds that police violated his right against
unreasonable search and seizure when they snatched four bags of
rubbish, obtaining enough evidence to obtain a search warrant for his
home, and then charged him with trafficking ecstasy.

The trash, which contained such things as drug recipes and receipts
from manufacturing supplies, was contained in an open receptacle at
the back of his property adjacent to an alley.

"When the garbage is placed at the lot line for collection, I believe
the householder has sufficiently abandoned his interest and control
to eliminate any objectively reasonable privacy interest," wrote
Justice Ian Binnie in the 7-0 ruling.

"The bags were unprotected and within easy reach of anyone walking by
in a public alleyway, including street people, bottle pickers, urban
foragers, nosy neighbours, and mischievous children, not to mention
dogs and assorted wildlife, as well as the garbage collectors and the police."

A former swimming star who set a national and a world record, Patrick
was sentenced to four years in prison in 2006.

He has been out on bail pending an appeal of his sentence, which will
now go ahead after the Supreme Court refused to overturn his
conviction, said his lawyer, Jennifer Ruttan.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association said there were significant
privacy rights at stake in the case because garbage contains personal
information.