The applicants, charged with drug trafficking and firearms offences, brought a Charter application alleging that warrantless police entries into the common areas of their condominium building to conduct surveillance violated their section 8 rights.
The police used observations from this surveillance to obtain a search warrant for the applicants' unit.
The Superior Court of Justice found that while the first entry to ascertain the applicants' address did not violate section 8, the second entry to confirm drug trafficking activities in the hallway did, as the applicants had a reasonable expectation of privacy.
Applying the Grant test under section 24(2), the court excluded the evidence found in the unit, concluding that the police showed reckless disregard for Charter standards and the impact on the applicants' privacy was significant.
