The applicant, M.C., sought to exclude evidence under s. 24(2) of the Charter, alleging violations of his s. 8 (unreasonable search) and s. 10 (right to counsel) rights by Canada Border Services Officers (BSOs) during a search of his electronic devices at Pearson International Airport.
The court found that the BSO had a particularized suspicion, triggering a constitutional detention, and failed to caution M.C. or advise him of his s. 8 rights before the search, thus violating s. 8.
The court also found that BSOs violated M.C.'s s. 10(b) right to counsel by adhering to a policy that restricted detainees to only duty counsel, denying his request to speak to his uncle, a criminal lawyer.
While a subsequent police interview by Constable Imber was found not to violate M.C.'s s. 10 rights and his statement to Imber was voluntary, the search warrant obtained by police was deemed invalid as it was based on constitutionally tainted information from the initial unlawful border search.
Applying the Grant test for s. 24(2) exclusion, the court found the Charter breaches serious, the impact on M.C.'s rights significant, and society's interest in the rule of law favoured exclusion.
The evidence recovered from M.C.'s electronic devices was therefore excluded from his trial.