If successful, the case would apply to thousands of others who have been strip-searched over the years.
Christopher Jacob and Elise Thorburn, who were strip-searched at the jail in 2003, say the jail wrongly strip-searched thousands of people between 2001 and 2006.
Outside court, their lawyer, Jason Gratl, noted that in Dec. 2001, the Supreme Court of Canada prohibited strip-searches as a routine police practice.
The court found the searches were inherently demeaning and degrading and that there must be reasonable and probable grounds that the search is needed to discover weapons or prevent the loss of evidence related to a valid arrest.
Gratl said the jail, operated jointly by the city and the B.C. government, didn’t listen to the Supreme Court and carried on strip-searching everyone arrested and brought to the jail until Dec. 2006.
Approximately 15,000 strip searches were conducted per year, meaning some 75,000 searches were done between 2001 and 2006, he said.
“To my mind that represents a significant atrocity,” said Gratl.
Jacob and Thorburn, both students, were arrested following a protest against the Iraq War at the U.S. consulate in April 2003.
At the time the suit was launched, Thorburn, 24, described the experience as “really unpleasant, especially because I had my period at the time.”
The suit claims the search policy at the jail violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms provisions against unreasonable search and seizure.
Since 2006, the jail had adopted a protocol, but it still results in the strip-searching of 42 per cent of all detainees, said Gratl.
The certification hearing, expected to run four days in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver, is before B.C. Supreme Court Madam Justice Miriam Gropper.
The first stage of the process is to have the case certified. If it is certified, the case will then proceed to assess what damages might be awarded.
Original Article
Source: the province
Author: KEITH FRASER
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