"The restraints imposed on government to pry into the lives of the citizen go to the essence of a democratic state."

Justice Gerald La Forest
Supreme Court of Canada
R. v. Dyment

A Keystone Right, A Keystone Resource

 

The keystone is the central wedge‑shaped stone of an arch that locks the other stones together. An apt analogy for the right against unreasonable search and seizure, because a reasonable expectation of privacy has been described as the foundational right around which all other Charter rights are constructed.

 

It is also a fitting description of The Law of Search and Seizure in Canada, 8^th Edition — the new edition of the respected work that has been relied on by more criminal practitioners, crown attorneys, law enforcement professionals and academics than any other. This keystone work takes the many and multifaceted issues that impact this intricate area of law — and locks them into a coherent, current and accessible reference. This guidance is especially crucial today, as new and invasive technologies, new security realties and complex social issues all interact to create a legal environment that has never been more challenging.

 

Features and Benefits

• A definitive source of Charter law and analysis 
• Covers search and seizure issues under a wide variety of federal and provincial statutes
• Outlines the rules for the seizure of firearms under the federal Firearms Act
• Analyzes the impact of new and emerging search technologies
• Provides a fully up-to-date statement of the law

Topics covered include:

• Search warrant requirements
• Execution and review of warrants
• Motor vehicle, personal and drug-related searches
• Electronic surveillance and computer searches

Get Full Coverage of the Latest Developments in the Law

 

This edition incorporates all the significant statutory and judicial developments that have shaped contemporary search and seizure law since publication of the seventh edition in 2007. Highlights of recent developments covered include:

• The significant impact on the rules for the exclusion of evidence created by the Supreme Court of Canada’s recent trilogy of cases – R. v. Harrison, R. v. Grant and R. v. Sheperd
• The Supreme Court of Canada’s important clarifications on the use of olfactory searches by the police — so-called dog-sniff searches — in R. v. Kang-Brown and R. v. A.M.
• New case law dealing with the warrantless collection of trash by law enforcement officers
• Important rulings on the use of investigative detention and the requirements for searches incidental to arrest
• The rules governing seizure of material from media outlets and their employees
• Recent case law concerning the test for an officer's entitlement to demand a breath sample, as well as case law further delineating the boundaries of an individual’s reasonable expectation of privacy
• Computer searches and the sufficiency of information underlying the valid issuance of search warrants, as delimited in cases such R. v. Morelli
• All relevant legislative changes, such as changes to the Criminal Code introducing a new regime for the detection and investigation of drug impaired driving