Dawn MacDonald

This ruling addresses a Section 8 Charter application by the accused, Paul Spencer, seeking to exclude evidence obtained from a search warrant for his apartment unit.

The warrant was based on police surveillance conducted without permission in the common areas (hallways, stairwells) of his apartment building and exterior observations of his balcony.

The court found that Mr. Spencer had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the common areas of his building, especially near his unit, and that the police's surreptitious entry and surveillance constituted a warrantless search, violating his Section 8 rights.

Applying the R. v. Grant analysis, the court determined that the seriousness of the breach, the significant impact on the accused's privacy, and the need to maintain the repute of the justice system outweighed society's interest in admitting the evidence.

Consequently, all evidence obtained from the search of the accused's residence was excluded.

The accused, Duval Smith, challenged the validity of CDSA search warrants, seeking to exclude seized evidence under s. 24(2) of the Charter, alleging a violation of his s. 8 rights.

The challenge was sub-facial, arguing the Information to Obtain (ITO) was misleading due to affiant carelessness, including erroneous source history, improper investigative file maintenance, and inadequate presentation of previous warrant information.

The court found the affiant careless but not intentionally misleading, and that despite the deficiencies, the ITO, when excised and amplified, still provided reasonable and probable grounds for the warrant's issuance based on compelling and corroborated confidential source information and surveillance.

The application to exclude evidence was dismissed.

The applicants brought a motion to exclude wiretap evidence obtained during a police investigation into the manufacturing and trafficking of converted firearms.

They argued that the police failed to demonstrate the existence of a criminal organization, failed to establish investigative necessity, and engaged in a pattern of misrepresentation that subverted the pre-authorization process.

The court found that while there were insufficient grounds to establish a criminal organization and some misrepresentations existed in the affidavits, the investigative necessity requirement was met for the firearms offences.

After excising the misleading information, the court concluded that the authorizing judge could still have granted the authorizations.

The court declined to exercise its residual discretion to exclude the evidence, finding no deliberate attempt to subvert the prior authorization process.

The application was dismissed.

The accused challenged the validity of two search warrants issued under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act on the basis that they violated section 8 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The court conducted a Garofoli application to determine whether reasonable and probable grounds existed for the issuance of the warrants.

The accused also brought a constitutional challenge to the "Step Six" procedure and sought the appointment of amicus curiae.

The court rejected the constitutional challenge, declined to appoint amicus, and found that the warrants could have been issued based on credible, compelling, and corroborated information from a confidential informant combined with independent police investigation, including OPP wiretap evidence of firearms trafficking.

The accused, Moses Atule, brought applications alleging breaches of his Charter rights under s. 10(a) (right to be informed of reasons for arrest) and s. 8 (unreasonable search and seizure related to a strip search).

The Crown brought an application to admit a video interview of the accused.

The court dismissed Atule's applications, finding no Charter breaches, and granted the Crown's application to admit the video interview.

The court found that Atule had sufficient information to understand his jeopardy despite not being told the specific drug, and that the strip search, while imperfect in adhering to all Golden guidelines, maintained his dignity.

The video interview was found to be voluntary.