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Full-Text Articles in Law
Telus: Asking The Right Questions About General Warrants, Steve Coughlan
Telus: Asking The Right Questions About General Warrants, Steve Coughlan
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
The general warrant provisions in the Criminal Code have often been interpreted by lower courts in a way which threatens to make that power quite open-ended, and to make those warrants available as a way of making an "end run" around the requirements of other provisions. This note argues that the Supreme Court of Canada is correct, in Telus,to adopt a "substantive equivalence" approach to general warrants, thereby limiting the circumstances in which they can be used. Lower courts have sometimes taken the view that a general warrant is only unavailable if the proposed technique would fall squarely within some …
Electronic Evidence In Canada, Robert Currie, Steve Coughlan
Electronic Evidence In Canada, Robert Currie, Steve Coughlan
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
This chapter discusses the issues surrounding electronic evidence in Canada. Topics discussed include the best evidence rule, electronic signatures, web-based evidence, and video-tape and security camera evidence. In addition rules around protection of privacy, discovery, and confidentiality are pursued. Finally the chapter also considers the many issues which arise around gathering electronic evidence in the criminal context, including wiretaps, general warrants, and searches of computers and cell phones.
R. V. Ha: Upholding General Warrants Without Asking The Right Questions, Steve Coughlan
R. V. Ha: Upholding General Warrants Without Asking The Right Questions, Steve Coughlan
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
To date, in considering general warrants, courts have been failing even to think about a distinction which ought to be seen as essential. The distinction arises in connection with the requirement in section 487.01 (l)(c) of the Criminal Code that a general warrant is only available when no other provision in any statute could authorize the search. In R. v. Ha, reported ante p. 24, the Ontario Court of Appeal notes that: The simple fact is that there is no provision in the Code, the CDSA, or in any other federal statute that would authorize an unlimited number of covert …