New police efforts to find missing Toronto teen Mariam Makhniashvili are coming under fire for being too intrusive.
Around 60 police investigators are searching people's homes in the north Toronto neighbourhood where Makhniashvili, an 18-year-old student from Forest Hill Collegiate Institute, was last seen.
Over the next two to three weeks, police hope to canvas 6,000 homes in an area between Bathurst Street, Eglinton Avenue, Shalamar Boulevard and Chaplin Crescent in hopes of finding her.
"The police will keep knocking at your door until they can identify that you are there behind the door," Det.-Sgt Dan Nealon advised residents Monday.
"We're also going to be asking that we be invited inside your home for just a quick peek into areas of your home to ensure that there is no evidence in relation to this case with respect to you."
Police have already visited the apartment of area resident Golan Derozen, who invited them in. They stayed for 10 minutes, asked him a few questions, looked at his car and storage unit, then left.
"They asked me some personal questions — my age, what I do, if I knew … Miriam, if I know what happened," he said.
Residents can refuse entry
Criminal defence lawyer Edward Sapiano calls the technique a dangerous fishing expedition.
Although Nealon said Monday that people "certainly" have the right to refuse entry to the police, Sapiano told CBC News that those who deny police entry will come under suspicion.
The police service's methods mean "a Canadian citizen is deemed guilty until police are satisfied you are innocent," he said. "And a Canadian citizen who insists on exercising the rights of [a] Canadian citizen is immediately deemed a suspect."
Another criminal lawyer, James Morton, said the police force's request of residents didn't amount to "a tremendous intrusion" if there is some reason to believe Makhniashvili is alive.
"And certainly if you say no, that doesn't mean you're going to be subject to enormous police scrutiny," he told CBC News. "But it will mean that you'll be somebody the police will look at more carefully."
Mariam was last seen on the morning of Sept. 14 when she headed to school with her brother.
Police have struggled to find leads in the investigation, although on Oct. 8 they found Mariam's backpack in a parking lot behind 120 Eglinton Ave. E. — a building that sits on a busy Toronto street — just a few kilometres from where she was last seen. The backpack was the first and only tangible item police uncovered in relation to the case.
Investigators say they still don't know if Makhniashvili is a victim of foul play or vanished on her own or if something else happened
James Morton
1100-5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4
416 225 2777
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