Drug Sniffing Dogs in Vancouver.

Vancouver, British Columbia, has announced a plan to use drug sniffing dogs on their mass transit, to randomly seek out users of illegal substances. At one point in my life this type of activity would not have bothered me. I would have said, 'if you're clean, you have nothing to worry about.'

Not so any longer. Governments, at least the ones in the US and Canada to be sure, have begun justifying nearly anything, with protecting the public as the excuse. It is an invalid premise, IF we still believe that people are innocent until proven guilty.

Random sweeps of any sort violate this axiom. Unless you have evidence that I'm involved in illegality, you have no right to sniff my coat, monitor my bank deposits, or hold me at the border trying to get back into my own country. It is an affront to my dignity, to the dignity of every individual, and must be fought at every turn.

I should be secure in my person unless and until there is just cause to look into my activities. If we allow this sort of admittedly minor inconvenience to continue, the jackboots will follow. The terrorists will have won anyway. We will have met the enemy, and he will be us.