Understanding Canadian Law Three-Book Bundle. Daniel J. Baum

Of course, much police work does consist of assembling different ‘scraps’ of information, some of it apparently meaningless, into a significant picture. This fact does not necessarily generate constitutional protection for the ‘meaningless scraps’ that form part of the mosaic unless there is something else in the context that drives that result. In the present case, [this consideration] is inapplicable. The information [here] is highly meaningful. We are not dealing with ‘scraps.’ The dogs pointed the police to the sniffer dog’s equivalent of a smoking gun.”

       Finally, the courts “have to deal with what is presented to them as reality.” It is true that a sniffer dog may alert police to information about the crime under investigation. And, having said this, the Court made it clear that the subject of such investigatory tools is not finally resolved by this case. Other facts may bring other results.

      Applying Facts

      Justice Binnie and the chief justice applied the following principles to the arguments that the Crown raised:

       It is true that the students knew that the school setting was closely supervised and regulated. Indeed, A.M.’s school principal had made clear the board of education and school policy of zero-tolerance of unlawful drugs.

      In carrying forward that policy, wasn’t it logical to allow sniffer dog police searches? Isn’t this a legitimate incursion on the rights of students? The answer from Justice Binnie and the chief justice was this: There was a general expectation of privacy that did not end because of a generalized fear of drugs. The threat had to be more immediate; it had to be based on a real suspicion.

       Yet doesn’t A.M. in effect ask that his privacy interest be one of protecting “contraband”? The dog’s sniff relates only to illegal drugs. Justice Binnie and the chief justice quoted with approval a dissent of then U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brennan when faced with a similar prosecution argument: