The accused brought an application to exclude evidence and stay drug trafficking charges, alleging his arrest and subsequent searches violated his Charter rights.
The court found the arrest and pat-down search were lawful based on police observations of a suspected hand-to-hand drug transaction.
However, the court held the subsequent strip search violated section 8 of the Charter because the police failed to properly document and justify the authorization for the search.
Despite the breach, the court declined to grant a stay of proceedings under section 24(1), finding the Babos criteria were not met and suggesting the breach could be addressed as a mitigating factor at sentencing if the accused is convicted.