Search of UVic student’s backpack ‘arbitrary’

An 18-year-old University of Victoria student found with seven cans of unopened beer in his backpack saw his charge for being a minor with liquor in his possession quashed.

The beer was found after the man left a student residence around 10 p.m. on Sept. 7, 2015, and his backpack was searched by two off-duty Saanich police officers working for the university to patrol the campus.

“UVic has a number of residences on campus for its students,” B.C. provincial court Judge H.W. Gordon said in his decision. “At two times of the academic year, a problem at those residences arises. Those two times are in September and in April…

“What occurs in September is that students in the residences, and some non-residence students, party. That partying usually involves the consumption of liquor. Some consume too much liquor and acts of mischief and vandalism result, most often pulling the fire alarm or damaging property in a residence.”

Gordon said when the officers saw the minor, identified as E.S., with a “boxy” backpack they assumed from its shape that it was a box of beer. Instead, they found seven cans wrapped in a hoodie.

“In my view, E.S. had a reasonable expectation of privacy in his backpack and that it would not be subject to an arbitrary search,” Gordon stated.

“E.S. was on the grounds of a university where, from my own experience, and from living only a few blocks from the University of Victoria, it is a very common occurrence for students to be wearing or carrying a backpack. In my view, this search was more in the realm of a fishing expedition based on mere suspicion.”