A dreadlocked Toronto human rights worker has lost a "test case" against Canadian border officials after claiming he was targeted for a Pearson airport drug search because of his hairstyle.

Paul Richards, who works for the Ontario Human Rights Commission, claims he was searched in July 2003 while returning from Jamaica because he fit the profile of "a drug smuggler as a black man with dreadlocks coming from a source country."

He filed an unsuccessful complaint to the Canadian Human Rights Commission, which led to a failed appeal to the Federal Court of Canada, which issued a ruling two weeks ago.

Richards, in court documents, alleged he was questioned three times by different Customs officers about his vacation, where he stayed, what he did and if he was "gainfully employed."

He said the questioning ceased after he told officers he worked for the province.

Richards alleged the officers' actions were based on "stereotypical assumptions about the criminality of African-Canadian males."

"To single out and treat someone differently because of how they look is racial profiling," his lawyer, Marie Chen, of the African Canadian Legal Clinic, alleged in court last month.

But the court said Richards' complaint was probed and dismissed by a CHRC investigator who ruled Customs officers are entitled to keep the country safe and ask questions of travellers.

The CHRC said adherents of the Rastafarian faith use marijuana and officers can ask if any was being brought into the country.

004 H.U.M.A.N.: Hemp Users Medical Access Network - Toronto Medical Marijuana