FALSE POSITIVE FOR DRUGS ANGERS BRITISH TRAVELLER

A British man who was jailed for six days after Canadian border agents carried out a drug test on a recently deceased friend’s ashes says he’s angered it took so long before a retest allowed his release. Russell Laight, 41, was travelling from Britain to Nova Scotia when his flight was diverted to St. John’s, N. L., due to a storm on March 2. He says when he landed he was “gobsmacked” when Canada Border Services Agency agents took him aside to say a test showed the ashes of a boyhood friend he was bringing to friends in Nova Sco- tia turned out to have tested positive for the drug ketamine. Laight says after being arrested, charged and jailed, he was asked for a large sum for bail and declined because he felt further information would show he was innocent. “I think they ( the Canada Border Services Agency) should have to automatically do a followup test,” he said from his friend’s home in Halifax. Laight said a followup test was carried out by Health Canada after a request by his friends in Halifax. He says it countered the first result.