class ApplicationController

def force_utf8_params

See http://jasoncodes.com/posts/ruby19-rails2-encodings (thanks for the following code, Jason!)
See https://rails.lighthouseapp.com/projects/8994/tickets/4807
See http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8268778/rails-2-3-9-encoding-of-query-parameters

That's what's happening in Rails 3, too: https://github.com/rails/rails/commit/25215d7285db10e2c04d903f251b791342e4dd6a
That's why we force the encoding of the params to UTF-8
That causes problems, especially when using special chars and with certain DBs, like DB2
When using TrustyCms with Ruby 1.9, the strings that come in from forms are ASCII-8BIT encoded. 
def force_utf8_params
  traverse = lambda do |object, block|
    if object.is_a?(Hash)
      object.each_value { |o| traverse.call(o, block) }
    elsif object.is_a?(Array)
      object.each { |o| traverse.call(o, block) }
    else
      block.call(object)
    end
    object
  end
  force_encoding = lambda do |o|
    o.force_encoding(Encoding::UTF_8) if o.respond_to?(:force_encoding)
  end
  traverse.call(params, force_encoding)
end