Judges set to determine whether trash is private

Normally there is no issue but that disposed of items can be taken by police.

A discarded coffee cup can, for example, be checked for DNA. But here there was an entry on private property -- how is taking 'trash' from my property different from taking my papers or files from my property?

The Globe and Mail
Thu 09 Oct 2008
Page: A4
Section: National News
Byline: Kirk Makin
Source: JUSTICE REPORTER

Nothing was stirring but the raccoons on Dec. 17, 2003, when Calgary police swooped down in a predawn raid to snatch Russell Patrick's garbage.

Reaching over Mr. Russell's property line, officers made off with several bags of refuse, eliciting enough evidence of a potential drug-manufacturing operation to obtain a search warrant on his house.

Shortly afterward, Mr. Patrick was charged with producing and trafficking the methamphetamine MDA, launching a classic battle over the constitutional right to privacy.

At a Supreme Court of Canada hearing tomorrow, the judges will be asked to overturn Mr. Patrick's conviction and exclude the evidence on the grounds that seizing a citizen's garbage is the mark of a police state.
James Morton
1100 - 5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4