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Cellphones now facilitate nearly all forms of business and personal activity. And there is no question that cellphones are used to facilitate criminal activity. It has been noted that cellphones are the "bread and butter" of the drug trade and the means by which...
On February 18, 2021, the Honourable David Lametti, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, introduced proposed amendments to the Criminal Code and to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. The purpose of the Bill is to decrease the representation of...
In order to search your house with a warrant, the police need to swear an affidavit (known as an ITO) to get authorization from a judicial officer. The ITO sets out the reasons, and the supporting evidence, why the police believe there will be evidence, such as...
You've been charged with a criminal offence, such as conspiracy to traffic cocaine. The police used an agent and a wiretap to gather incriminating evidence against you. In doing so, they breached your Charter rights. The presiding judge rules that the wiretaps should...
"Dynamic Entires" are a tactic commonly used by the police in drug investigations. Although they thought they could, it turns out the police cannot just have a policy of bashing in your door and throwing a "distraction device" into your front entrance way scaring the...
When you cross the border into Canada from the USA, you are subjected to a search, where there is a lower expectation of privacy than you would otherwise have. A recent decision of the Ontario Superior Court considered the use of both detector dogs and ion scanners at...
In May 2018, the Ontario Court of Appeal in R v Vu, 2018 ONCA 436 has struck down mandatory minimum sentences (MMS) in relation to the productions of marijuana. Parliament had implemented a sliding scale of MMS for marijuana production offences. The MMS go from 6...
A recent Ontario Superior Court decision, R v Boekdrukker, addressed this issue. The Court examined both what is required in the Criminal Code as well as what is required under the common law. Section 29(1) of the Criminal Code states that: "It is the duty of every...
The Supreme Court recently ruled in the case of R v Paterson, 2017 SCC 15, that police cannot search your home without a warrant simply because it would be impractical to obtain one. Warrantless entries must be compelled by urgency, immediate police action to preserve...
An I.T.O. or Information To Obtain, is a document filed by a police officer to a Judge seeking authorization to obtain a search warrant, often to look for evidence of drug offences. This document is accompanied by an affidavit of the officer. The affidavit, a document...
