The Court of Appeal for Ontario (the “ONCA”) has provided a sobering reminder about the importance of timely access to counsel. R v Whittaker, 2024 ONCA 182 [Whittaker] reinforces the notion that extended delays in accessing counsel will generally have an extensive impact on a detainee’s s. 10(b)-protected interests. In emphasizing the psychological benefits of […]
On February 22, 2024, the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”, or the “Court”) granted the Crown’s application for leave to appeal [40990] R v Wilson, 2023 SKCA 106 [Wilson]. The SCC’s decision will set a national standard regarding the limits of police powers to arrest and search a person who reports or remains at the […]
In R v Zacharias, 2023 SCC 30 [Zacharias], a divided Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC” or the “Court”) held that evidence obtained through an unlawful detention cannot be used to ground a lawful arrest. Although Zacharias set a uniform national standard on this point, the SCC was anything but uniform in addressing the issue and […]
When evidence is collected via conduct that violates an accused person’s rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, 1982 Sched B to the Canada Act 1982 (UK), 1982, c 11 [Charter], courts must analyze whether theevidence ought to be excluded as provided by s. 24(2) of the Charter. The s. 24(2) analysis was […]
How private are your private messages? Can the police read the texts you send to others? This post explores R v Marakah, 2017 SCC 59, in which the Supreme Court of Canada found that a sender can have a reasonable expectation of privacy over messages retrieved from the phone of the person receiving those messages. The […]