What is a search?
There are several different kinds of searches. A frisk search is a manual search of your person while clothed. Specifically, it is a search from your head to your toes, down the front and back of your body and around your legs.185 As well, a frisk search can include a search of your personal possessions, including a coat that you have been requested to remove.186
A non-intrusive search is a search preformed by technical means.187 This means that the search can be conducted with the use of a handheld device or with a walk through metal scanner.188
A strip search can include a visual inspection of your naked body. It can also include a search of your clothing and other personal possessions you are carrying.189 During the course of a strip search, the staff member may also require you to open your mouth, show her the soles of your feet, open your hands and arms, and allow her to run her hands through your hair. As well, she may require you to bend over to allow for a visual inspection only.190
A strip search can only be performed in a private area out of sight of everyone except the woman staff member performing the search and one other woman staff member who acts as a witness.191 Men are no longer permitted to strip search women in women’s prisons, nor can women strip search men – something your visitors should be aware of. It is important to note that due to the grave humiliation and degradation experienced by persons undergoing strip searches, they have been disallowed as part of “routine” policy outside the prison context.
Return to note 185. CCRR, s. 44.
Return to note 186. CCRA, s. 46.
Return to note 187. CCRA, s. 46.
Return to note 188. CCRR, s. 43.
Return to note 189. CCRA, s. 46.
Return to note 190. CCRR, s. 45.
Return to note 191. CCRR, s. 46.