Manitoba Court of Appeal Ruling gives police room to search for guns
Date: Jul 10, 2008 11:39 AM
PUBLICATION: WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
DATE: 2008.07.10
PAGE: A5
BYLINE: James Turner
SECTION: City
WORD COUNT: 330

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Ruling gives police room to search for guns

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Manitoba’s highest court has ruled that when it comes to guns, the need to protect
public safety trumps an individual’s right to privacy when police go searching
for weapons in homes. The Court of Appeal decision gives the police more legal breathing
room to seek out guns in the absence of a search warrant when they believe firearms
might be present.

In a decision handed down this week, the Manitoba Court of Appeal refused Ryan Tereck’s
bid to have key evidence used to convict him on drug-production charges tossed.
Police came across a marijuana grow operation in his Dauphin home while conducting
a search for a gun they believed he was going to use to commit suicide.

Police forced their way into Tereck’s home in April 2005 under the authority
of the Mental Health Act, which allows authorities to “take reasonable measures”
to intervene when they have grounds to believe a person threatens their own life
or the lives of others.

Tereck was arrested without incident and removed from the home while two officers
conducted a “sweep search” – or superficial search – of the home looking
for other people or weapons.

In doing so, they discovered evidence of the grow-op and withdrew from the home
to apply for a warrant to search further. Police later returned to the house where
they seized 300 marijuana plants and other equipment.

Tereck was convicted and handed a 10-month conditional sentence, a long-weapons
prohibition and a small fine on Jun. 29, 2007.

Tereck appealed his conviction, asking that the drug evidence be quashed by the
appeal court, saying while police had the right to enter his home and detain him
under the powers of the Mental Health Act, they had no right or reason to search
his home.

At Tereck’s trial, the presiding judge found police had acted appropriately
based on information they received that Tereck had access to an automatic weapon
- and that when it comes guns, the public’s collective safety trumps privacy.

The Second Amendment IS Homeland Security !