The accused brought a pre‑trial Charter application seeking exclusion of evidence obtained after their arrests for alleged human smuggling and related conspiracy offences under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and Criminal Code.
They argued the police lacked reasonable and probable grounds to arrest them, rendering the detention arbitrary under s. 9 of the Charter and the subsequent searches unreasonable under s. 8.
The court held that the directing officer possessed both subjective and objectively reasonable grounds based on the totality of the circumstances, including information from U.S. authorities, phone records linking smugglers to a Cornwall residence, and surveillance of a Toronto‑registered vehicle connected to that address.
The arrests were therefore lawful.
In any event, the court held the evidence would not have been excluded under s. 24(2) because the officers acted in good faith and the evidence was reliable and essential to prosecuting a serious human‑smuggling offence.
