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Walsh J. allowed the application and quashed the decision to suspend B's wife's visitation rights. Under subsection 41(2)(a) of the Penitentiary Service Regulations, any member may search "any visitor, where there is reason to believe that the visitor has contraband in his possession…" Walsh J. held that this Regulation does not in itself authorize a spot-check search, nor does it permit unrestricted body searches. There has to be a reason for requiring the body search, and it was the Court's view that the reason in itself must be, if not "reasonable" at least credible and justifiable, with reference to the specific visitor to be searched. For the Walsh J., such a reason did not seem to exist in the present case since the only reason given was that the visitor appeared to be nervous. It appears very tenuous to justify a body search, which is a humiliating and degrading procedure, on such a flimsy excuse. The authorities are under a duty of fairness. As such, whether inmate visitation is considered as a right or a privilege, where the visitor is unfairly asked to submit to a strip search based on reasons which are very unsubstantial and which are not even communicated to the visitor, and the result is in contravention of the Regulations, it is open to the courts to intervene. In such circumstances, certiorari is the proper remedy to quash an order suspending visiting rights.
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