Police responding to a domestic violence call arrested the accused in the basement of his home and, incident to that arrest, conducted a visual clearing search of an adjoining basement living room, discovering methamphetamine in plain view.
The majority held that the common law standard for search incident to arrest must be modified where the area searched is outside the arrested person's physical control at the time of arrest: the police must have reasonable suspicion of a safety risk, and the search must be conducted in a manner tailored to the heightened privacy interests in a home.
Applying that standard, the majority found no breach of s. 8 of the Charter and dismissed the appeal.
The dissent (Karakatsanis, Brown and Martin JJ.) would have required reasonable suspicion of an imminent threat and found the standard unmet, favouring exclusion of the evidence under s. 24(2).
Côté J. agreed with the dissent on the standard and the s. 8 breach but would not exclude the evidence under s. 24(2).
