Peter Vandenbergh

The defendant was arrested for impaired driving and subjected to a strip search at 32 Division without reasonable and probable grounds.

Although both counsel agreed the police violated the defendant's section 8 Charter rights, they disagreed on the appropriate remedy.

The Crown sought a sentence reduction while the defence sought a stay of proceedings.

The court found systemic and ongoing constitutional violations at 32 Division regarding strip searches, with evidence that officers routinely conducted unconstitutional searches while mislabeling them as Level 2 searches.

The court granted a stay of proceedings, finding this was one of the clearest cases warranting such a remedy to preserve the integrity of the justice system.

The Crown sought an adjournment of a scheduled Not Criminally Responsible (NCR) hearing on the grounds that its key psychiatric witness, Dr. McDonald, was unavailable.

The court denied the adjournment, finding that the Crown had failed to exercise due diligence in securing the witness's attendance despite having known the hearing date for eight months.

The court noted that the accused had made significant progress in treatment and rehabilitation since his release on bail, and that the Crown had failed to meet the established test for adjournment under R. v. Darville.

The court proceeded to sentencing based on the accused's guilty pleas.