William Barnes

The accused brought a mid-trial application alleging a breach of his s. 8 Charter rights, arguing that police exceeded the temporal scope of a search warrant when extracting data from his seized cell phones.

The Crown sought summary dismissal of the application.

The court found that the warrant's temporal limits applied only to usage timelines, not to communications related to trafficking, and that the accused failed to provide evidence that police actually examined data outside the warrant's scope.

The application was summarily dismissed as manifestly frivolous.

The accused, an Indigenous person with a history of substance abuse, was detained for six months on charges including trafficking in persons.

A detention review was held under s. 525 of the Criminal Code.

The court found that while the initial detention was justified on secondary grounds, the accused's subsequent rehabilitation efforts and a new release plan involving family sureties mitigated the risks.

The court also found the tertiary ground for detention was not met, emphasizing the need to apply Gladue principles.

The accused was ordered released on strict house arrest conditions.