Canadian
Civil
Liberties
Association
Seeks
Investigation
of
Mass
Strip
Search
at
Rave
2/25/00
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association has filed an official complaint under the Canadian Police Act, asking for an investigation into police conduct in strip searching approximately fifty people at a rave party in Halifax. Male and female employees and volunteers, some of whom are in their teens, were strip searched in their respective restrooms by police acting on a tip. Their information, according to the Halifax police, told them that a sizeable amount of drugs would be found in a ceiling above the dance floor. When no drugs were found, the police began a person by person search. "The Halifax police, in our view, flagrantly broke the law and invaded the civil liberties of those they searched at the rave," CCLA director J. Walter Thompson wrote in the complaint. "There is not even a pretense of reasonable grounds in this case." Police claim that proper procedures were followed. Thompson told The Week Online that the complaint procedure is an important, but not a perfect avenue to pursue in this matter. "Once the complaint is filed, the chief of police must begin an investigation. He has the choice to investigate it himself, or else to bring in another police force to do it. The process is more geared toward disciplining individual officers than toward getting relief in a case like this. Here, so many officers showed up at the club that it is apparent that the orders came from above. The police have not shown any remorse at all here, claiming that they followed procedures. But when fifty young people are strip searched, without any individualized suspicion, when the amount of drugs they were looking for would have been easily detectable by a normal pat-down, well, they shouldn't need us to tell them to do an investigation." Mr. Thompson also believes that the police response to the alleged presence of "club drugs" is something of a misapplication of resources. "I can't tell you how many young Nova Scotians have driven off the road, drunk, and died after a dance at the local fire hall. Now, the rave scene seems to be fairly new up here, but we haven't had anything like that come out of a rave. The difference is that the raves are attended by a population that is perceived to be marginalized."
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