Ontario police watchdog to review use of strip searches

A Toronto lawyer who says he saw "how abuse happens" when someone is strip-searched is welcoming news that Ontario's police watchdog is planning toreview the police practice.

Murray Klippenstein successfully sued the Toronto Police Service in 2013 after his client, Sean Salvati,was held without access to a lawyer for 11 hours before being released.Salvati was arrested, strip-searched and led naked past a female officer a few days prior to the G20 Summit that was held in Toronto in June 2010.

"I do think a report like this is part of the solution so that police officers realize that when they do what they do, they're breaking the law," Klippenstein told CBC News. "If [the review]is thorough, it'll inform people of their rights and the police of how bad things are."

"Right now, I think thousands of people are being strip searched outside the law," he added. "People who go through this are so traumatized. It affects your sleep, your job, your respect for the police."

Gerry McNeilly, who headsthe Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD), told CBC News he decided to launch the review because his agency "continuously receives complaints of people being improperly and illegally searched."

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McNeilly said he's been speaking out about the issue for three years, and raised it with former Toronto chief of police Bill Blair and with police chiefs across the province.

"Even though I've been suggesting things need to change, they're not, so I thought it was necessary to do a systemic reviewso that the public can understand what their rights are when they're arrested, and police understand they must follow the rules and regulations in regards to strip searches," he said.

In 2001, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that police do not have the automatic right to conduct strip searches when they arrest people. It said strip searches are inherently demeaning and degrading, and there must be reasonable and probable grounds that the search is required to discover weapons or prevent the loss of evidence related to a valid arrest.

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McNeilly said his review "will emphasize what the Supreme Court of Canada said, that it's humiliating, it's degrading, it's the worst search anyone can be subjected to."

He added the review, which he hopes will be completed in a year, will "identify if there are any police services that are not following the procedures and policies."

McNeilly said that 90 complaints lodged with the OIPRD in the last couple of years involved claims of astrip search.

"That's a lot of cases and that's of great concern to me," he said.