Unit 3 - Criminal Law Part A

Question 1

What is search and seizure?

Answer 1

Search: examination of a person or their property for finding/retrieving evidence

Seizure: The taking of an object/property as evidence for a searched person or premises

Question 2

What are the legal rights regarding search and seizure?

Answer 2

Section 8 - Everyone has the right to be secure against unreasonable search or seizure
Section 24 (b) - Exclusion of evidence

Question 3

Who may the police search?

Answer 3

• Anyone who has been placed under arrest
• Anyone who is reasonably believed to be carrying a weapon in violation of the law
• Any property (house/residence excepted) which is under control of the suspect

Question 4

What are the key components to searches

Answer 4

• cannot be arbitrary
• must be reasonable and have probable grounds

Question 5

What is a search warrant?

Answer 5

A legal document issued by a court that allows the police to search a house or building in question

Question 6

What are the elements that must be included in a search warrant?

Answer 6

• Name of jurisdiction
• Name of officer
• Description and address of property/residence to be searched
• List of items police are searching for
• Name of criminal offence for which evidence is needed
• Time and date of the search
• Signature of the judge or justice

Question 7

What is a Telewarrant?

Answer 7

• A search warrant which is provided over the phone
• It’s only used when police suspect indictable offence, and when it’s not practical for police to personally request a warrant
• Any evidence obtained outside the guidelines of the warrant cannot be used in court

Question 8

What is the Plain view Doctrine?

Answer 8

Police can collect evidence that is in plain view. It permits certains seizures to be conducted without a warrant.

Question 9

What is a strip search?

Answer 9

A search that involves removal of clothing to allow visual inspection, also includes body cavities

Question 10

What is a general warrant?

Answer 10

• Allows police to carry out searches in secret, and to reveal them when eventual arrests are made & the investigation is concluded.
• Also allows planting of Gps tracking devices, tracking private communications.
• To allow these searches to happen, the officer has to swear before a judicial officer that they have reasonable grounds, as well as describe in detail the case.-

Question 11

What is the purpose of the Jordan ruling?

Answer 11

It sets a time limit for how long criminal trials can take before being considered unreasonable delays.

(18 months for provincial court trials and 30 months for superior court trial.)

Question 12

What happens when the presumptive ceiling is exceeded?

Answer 12

The delay is considered unreasonable. unless the Crown can rebut the presumption.

Question 13

What criteria is needed in order to search cellphones?

Answer 13

Police must take detailed notes about what was found on the cellphone and it was obtained. A warrant is needed, but there might be some exceptions.

Question 14

What happened in R. v. Vu?

Answer 14

The police was allowed to search Vu’s house to search for evidence of theft of electricity. The warrant did not specifically authorize the search of computers. In the search, police found marijuana, two computers and a cellphone; upon search they were able to identify Vu as the owner of the phones and residence. The trial judge found that it violated Vu’s s. 8 of the charter.

(so basically should the police exclude evidence if it was obtained unlawfully…)

Question 15

What charter section was involved in R. v. Vu?

Answer 15

Section 8 of the charter

Question 16

What was the legal issue in R. v. Fearon (2014)?

Answer 16

Fearon, after he was charged and convicted because of an armed robbery he had done in 2009, appealed and argued that police violated his charter rights when they searched his cellphone without a warrant.

Question 17

What was the court’s opinion on R. v. Fearon?

Answer 17

The court agreed that the police needed a warrant, but that the evidence found should not be excluded.
“The police simply did something that they believed on reasonable grounds to be lawful and were proven wrong”

Question 18

What was the impact of R. v. Fearon?

Answer 18

It was established that a phone can subjected to a warrantless search if the “nature and the extent of the search are tailored to the purpose of the search” if police “take detailed notes of what they examined on the device and how it was searched.”