The accused was charged with drug trafficking offences after police executed a search warrant at his residence and seized approximately 1kg of cocaine from a safe.
At trial, the accused brought a Charter application arguing his s. 10(b) right to counsel and s. 8 right against unreasonable search were violated due to delays in facilitating access to a lawyer, questioning before he spoke to counsel, and an unjustified level 3 (strip) search at the police station.
The court found breaches of both s. 10(b) and s. 8.
However, applying the Grant framework under s. 24(2), the court concluded the breaches were on the less serious end of the spectrum, had minimal impact on the accused as they did not lead to the discovery of the evidence, and society's interest favoured adjudication on the merits.
The application to exclude the evidence was dismissed.
