Section 8: Good Searches Gone Bad


 The validity of the search warrant does not end the inquiry as to the admissibility of the evidence when a Charter infringement occurred during the investigatory process that led to the search and seizure at issue.

A s. 24(2) Charter analysis is triggered when an infringement of s. 8 has occurred in the investigatory process, apart from a subsequent reasonable search pursuant to a valid warrant.

 R. v. Strachan, 1988 CanLII 25 (SCC);

R. v. Grant, [1993] 3 S.C.R. 223, at p. 254;

see also R. v. Strauss, 2017 ONCA 628, at para. 45.

The evidence tendered need not be causally linked to Charter violation in the investigative process. 

As the Supreme Court said in Grant (1993), at p. 255:

The warrantless searches, while perhaps not causally linked to the evidence tendered, were nevertheless an integral component in a series of investigative tactics which led to the unearthing of the evidence in question … to find otherwise would be to ignore the possible tainting effect which a Charter violation might have on the otherwise legitimate components of searches by state authorities.

See also, R. v. Strachan, 1988 CanLII 25 (SCC), at para. 39, 40, 47.



Stuart O’Connell, O’Connell Law Group, www.leadersinlaw.ca




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