Police Have to Play by the Rules, Too - Jayden Wlasichuk
The case to be examined in this blog is one concerned with sections 8 and 9 of the Charter and how they were violated by a Brandon Police Officer in the case of R. v. Neubuhr, 2021 MBQB 225 (“Neubuhr”). Neubuhr presented a case to have evidence excluded on the basis that it was obtained through the breach of his ss. 8 and 9 Charter rights. This case is an example of serious Charter-infringing police misconduct that resulted in a serious impact on the accused’s interests.
Turning Garbage into Gold: Physical Property vs. Abandoned Information - Shelly Neal
In the year 2021, personal data collection and privacy infringements seem to be the norm. Individual information is relinquished with the click of a button. Courts are now filled with novel cases exploring the limitations of privacy rights online. However, in the physical world, these rights appear quite established.
Police Search Powers and the Admission of Evidence (Privacy and Peril) - Thomas Mooney
Understanding how a society responds to a breach of an individual’s rights gives profound insight to how that society regards the rights of all individuals. Determining a breach of an individual’s section 8 rights is clearly denoted as a balancing act between the privacy interests of the individual and the needs of the state; the balance of these factors, as it sits at present, gives little significance to the breach of a section 8 right alone.
Police Powers in the Metaverse: Why the Charter’s Section 8 Will Have to Change - N.J. Peterman
Chief Justice Dickson famously advised in Hunter v Southam that section 8 of the Charter protects “people, not places.” With the concept of the metaverse on the rise, how will this apply to the internet as we know it? Like the internet, the emergence of the metaverse will have a profound impact on how our nation’s judiciary interprets s. 8 of the Charter, the right which provides everyone “to be secure against unreasonable search or seizure.”
Policing in the Defund Era: The SCC, Parliament, and the Contours of Police Powers - Keelin Griffin
In the wake of recent high profile cases of police violence in the United States, calls for reform and even defunding of the police became a rallying cry throughout the country and beyond. Polling conducted north of the border in 2020 found that Canadians are divided on the idea of defunding the police, with a slim majority (51%) expressing support. The role of police in society is clearly controversial, and amid calls for reform, it is worthwhile to consider how police power
