The applicants, charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy, and arson, brought a Charter application to exclude cell phone records obtained by police through "tower dump" production orders.
The applicants argued the warrants violated their section 8 rights due to their broad scope and lack of reasonable and probable grounds.
The court found that the initial tower dump warrants breached section 8 as they were based on speculation rather than reasonable grounds.
However, applying the Grant framework under section 24(2), the court declined to exclude the evidence, finding the police acted in good faith, the subsequent discovery of the specific phone numbers was inevitable due to a lawful "Mr. Big" confession, and society's interest in adjudicating a serious murder charge on its merits strongly favoured admission.
The application was dismissed.
