Délı̨nę plan to search flights with sniffer dogs gets warm welcome

The Délı̨nę Got’ı̨nę Government says it has begun using dogs to search luggage and cargo arriving by air for drugs and alcohol.

In an online statement last week, the DGG said it had partnered with Yellowknife-based North of Sixty K-9 Detection Services and routine searches began on Monday, November 10.

The searches take place in Yellowknife and target flights heading to Délı̨nę, a community of about 640 people in the NWT’s Sahtu region.

“Searches will be conducted on all luggage at the North-Wright air terminal in Yellowknife for all inbound flights to Délinę,” the DGG stated.

“Freight searches will be conducted at Summit Airways, Buffalo Air and Canadian North flights. All seizures will be reported to the RCMP for further investigations.”

Danny Gaudet, Ɂek’wahtı̨dǝ́ or leader of the Délįnę Got’įnę Government, wrote that the new search policy came “from a health and safety perspective.”

“The Délı̨nę Got’ı̨nę Government recognizes the magnitude of alcohol and drug challenges in the community of Délinę,” he wrote.

“The Délı̨nę Got’ı̨nę Government aims to build a safe, healthy and resilient community in Délı̨nę through preventing and minimizing alcohol, drug-related health, social, culture and economic harms among individuals, families and the wider community.”

Police and airline voice support

Residents reacting to the news online expressed near-unanimous support. The NWT’s smaller communities have for years described a worsening drug and alcohol crisis through both addictions and related crime.

While the NWT government is advancing legislation designed to offer more tools to target drug dealers, and Ottawa has promised a tougher approach to some forms of serious crime, community governments are also looking at what lies within their power.

Nobody from the DGG was made available for interview, but organizations in and around this initiative – from the RCMP to airlines – expressly stated they support communities trying to fight back against drugs.

“North-Wright Airways Ltd fully supports the efforts of our local communities to deter illicit drugs from entering their communities,” the Sahtu airline’s operations manager, Kyle Newhook, told Cabin Radio by email.

“As police, we see first-hand, every day, the harm that drugs and alcohol bring to the northern communities,” wrote Cpl Josh Seaward, a spokesperson for NWT RCMP.

“We are supportive of local governments taking their own steps to reduce the harm caused by bootlegging and illicit drugs in these communities and will continue to collaborate with our partners on solutions.”

Seaward added that Délı̨nę is not the first Sahtu community to launch this kind of initiative. The same company, he said, has already provided this service to Fort Good Hope.

If the dog detects drugs in luggage or cargo in Yellowknife, Seaward wrote, the drugs are seized and the Yellowknife detachment is contacted to investigate.

If alcohol is detected, he continued, the approach is different – as having alcohol in your bags in Yellowknife is not illegal.

That changes in Délı̨nę, so police in the Sahtu are notified of any alcohol detection in Yellowknife “and can action the matter upon arrival in accordance with the community liquor restrictions,” Seaward stated.

Charter rights on searches

The dog belongs to a private company, not the RCMP, and that company isn’t a law enforcement agency. So what are the legal implications of that?

The DGG has made clear it will involve the police if anything is seized, so the community intends for criminal prosecution to be an option – and a deterrent.

The Charter outlines rights regarding unreasonable search and seizure. Lawyers consulted by Cabin Radio said in broad terms there was no obvious concern with the DGG’s approach, but there are still rules to be followed.

“Ordinarily, the Charter of Rights only applies to governments. It does not apply to private entities,” said Peter Adourian, a criminal defence and civil rights lawyer based in Yellowknife.

“However, the Supreme Court of Canada has taken a fact-driven approach to determine whether an entity is acting as a government. In this situation, we have an Indigenous government outlining the policy to search people at the front end, and the fruits of the search going to the RCMP at the back end.

“I would think the Charter applies, and therefore the searches of bags and seizures of contraband must comply with the ordinary constitutional rules about unreasonable search and seizure.”

Adourian pointed out that if the searches and seizures carried out by the company at DGG’s request don’t comply with the constitution, that could jeopardize the prosecution of smugglers.

“I have no doubt the DGG and other Indigenous governments will comply with the constitution. Community safety is a serious concern, but there is no community safety where individual rights are trampled,” Adourian wrote.

‘No different than any luggage search’

Peter Harte, a longtime NWT defence lawyer, said he had spoken with multiple members of his profession about the DGG’s approach and could not identify a major flaw from a legal standpoint.

“What is an unreasonable search hinges on expectation of privacy,” Harte wrote.

“In your home, it is high. On the street, less so.

“Here, if you are warned in advance at baggage check-in – a simple media notice will not likely suffice – your expectation of privacy is likely nil. So the search should survive Charter challenge.”

Put another way, he said, if there’s a sign at check-in telling you that your bag will be searched by a drug dog, and you still check in a bag containing drugs, that’s on you.

He also noted that there’s another way for police and the community to handle things when they do find drugs or excess alcohol.

If officers simply dispose of the product each time and let the person go, he said, there’s no realistic prospect of a Charter challenge – the culprit hasn’t been charged with anything – but that would rapidly cause drug dealers and bootleggers to reassess the economic viability of trying to bring drugs to Délı̨nę.

Ultimately, Harte said, the process “is really no different than any luggage search connected to air travel.”

Whether more fly-in communities with no year-round road access adopt a similar strategy remains to be seen.

In recent years, some territorial politicians have called for more security to stop drugs reaching small communities by plane. (In general, internal NWT flights – where no portion of travel extends beyond the territory’s borders – don’t involve passenger screening.)

In 2024, for example, Mackenzie Delta MLA George Nerysoo – who represents Tsiigehtchic, Fort McPherson and Aklavik – said he had been asked by community leaders if Yellowknife Airport “can do something about providing security going north.”