Davin M. Garg

The police followed the respondent off a public highway and onto his private driveway to conduct a random sobriety check, where they observed signs of impairment and arrested him for impaired driving.

The trial judge convicted the respondent, but the summary conviction appeal judge overturned the conviction, finding the stop violated s. 9 of the Charter and excluding the evidence under s. 24(2).

The Court of Appeal dismissed the Crown's appeal, holding that neither s. 48(1) of the Highway Traffic Act nor the common law ancillary powers doctrine authorized police to conduct a random, groundless sobriety stop on private property.

The Court upheld the exclusion of evidence, concluding that the serious Charter breach outweighed the public interest in adjudicating the case on its merits.

The Crown brought an application to unseal documents held by an accounting firm (PWC) that were subject to a production order in a fraud investigation.

The respondent claimed blanket solicitor-client and litigation privilege over the entire PWC file, arguing the accountants were retained by his law firm to assist with a CRA voluntary disclosure application.

The court rejected the blanket privilege claim, finding that the accountants were primarily performing independent accounting functions (preparing tax returns) rather than acting solely as a conduit for legal advice.

The court ordered a document-by-document review by appointed referees to identify any specific privileged communications.