Legal Issues In Policing

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses implied licence and the impact of a "NO TRESPASSING" sign. Does the posting of such a sign neuter the implied licence doctrine or does it merely state what the law already recognizes: a person entering onto another's property must have a legitimate reason for doing so? Doesn't implie...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the Quebec Court of Appeal decision R. v. Paul , 2026 QCCA 552 , where a police officer saw a known drug user acting suspiciously late at night. This person was nervous, evasive and appeared uncomfortable about police presence. After speaking with the man, police  surreptitiously followed him, saw him a...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the BC Court of Appeal decision R. v. Dinh , 2026 BCCA 190 , where police, acting on an anonymous Crime Stoppers' tip,  followed a woman onto a ferry and later arrested her after she met with a man at a parking lot and exchanged bags. Police searched her car and found a kilogram of fentanyl hidden...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal decision R. v. Singer , 2026 SKCA 52 , an update to Episode 138 ( R. v. Singer , 2026 SCC 8). In this case, Saskatchewan’s top court had to determine the outstanding ground of appeal it refused to address: whether the accused’s right to a fair trial was prejudiced becaus...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the Manitoba Court of Appeal decision R. v. Francois , 2025 MBCA 93 where police, on routine patrol in a high crime area, saw a man in a back alley operating a grinder while leaning over a BMX bike. After briefly questioning the man about the bike, an officer — an avid biker himself — found things just...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the Supreme Court of Canada decision R. v. Singer , 2026 SCC 8 where police, responding to a reported impaired driver, saw a truck matching the suspect vehicle description parked in a private driveway with its engine running and lights on. Officers walked up the driveway to the truck and saw a man sleep...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the Supreme Court's 2025 Year in Review . How do last year's numbers stack up against previous years? And how often does the court disagree on the outcome of a case?   Thanks for listening! Feedback welcome at legalissuesinpolicing@gmail.com

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the BC Supreme Court decision R. v. Watroba , 2025 BCSC 815 where police saw a man, who they recognized as someone known to be involved in drug trafficking, standing outside a shopping mall with an easily accessible machete strapped across his back. This led to an investigative detention, a pat-down, th...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the power to arrest, without warrant, an offender in breach of their conditional release — unescorted temporary absence, parole or statutory release — and how the authority under s. 137.1 of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act (CCRA) came to be.  CCRA definitions (s. 99(1)): day parole means the...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike offers a Christmas message for all law enforcement officers.  Thanks for listening! Feedback welcome at legalissuesinpolicing@gmail.com

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the Supreme Court of Canada decision R. v. Carignan , 2025 SCC 43 where a police officer arrested a man under s. 495 of the Criminal Code . At trial, in the Court of Quebec, the man wanted a voir dire held to determine the lawfulness of his arrest because — he claimed — the police did not comply with s....

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the Alberta Court of Appeal decision R. v. Ouellette , 2025 ABCA 340 where a police officer accompanied an impaired driving suspect in the rear of an ambulance. While enroute to the hospital, the officer overheard the EMT ask the driver questions about drug and alcohol consumption and recorded her respo...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the Ontario Court of Appeal decision R. v. Dalia , 2025 ONCA 772 where police delayed providing an arrestee access to counsel until a house — the target of a search warrant — was secured. A sergeant expected an officer would learn via police radio when the home was secure and then facilitate access to a...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the Ontario Court of Appeal decision R. v. Jackson , 2025 ONCA 717 where police — after witnessing a suspected drug deal — stopped a vehicle, claiming a passenger was not wearing his seat belt. During the interaction, police saw cannabis shake (green specs and flakes) on the dashboard, smelled fresh mar...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the Ontario Court of Appeal decision R. v. Samuels , 2025 ONCA 736 where police arrested a man for drug trafficking and searched him at the scene incident to arrest by lifting his shirt and removing a bag of drugs sticking out from his underwear waistband. The man's sweatpants were then lowered to...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the Supreme Court of Canada decision R. v. Wilson , 2025 SCC 32 where police arrested people present at a drug overdose after someone called 9-1-1 for emergency medical assistance. A search incident to arrest revealed modified handguns, firearm parts and ammunition inside a nearby vehicle. Was the arres...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the Saskatchewan Court  of Appeal decision R. v. Brabant , 2025 SKCA 101 where police arrested a man without reasonable grounds to do so. When the man was searched, police found meth in his pocket and a sawed-off rifle under his sweater. Although the trial judge found Charter breaches — arbitrary detent...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the Ontario Court of Appeal  decision R. v. Ngo, 2025 ONCA 685 where police conducted a no-knock entry when executing a search warrant? Was departing from the knock-and-announce rule justified in the circumstances? Or did police action render the manner of search unreasonable? Lower court decision ( R....

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike looks back to the basics of search and seizure law by using the  acronym  CLEW — C onsent | L awful E xception | W arrant — that you can use to think about this important investigative tool.  Thanks for listening! Feedback welcome at legalissuesinpolicing@gmail.com

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the BC Supreme Court  decision R. v. Bateman , 2025 BCSC 1780 where police responded to an abandoned 911 call. Suspecting a possible domestic, an officer patted-down a man who answered the door at the residence. After feeling something “hard” and “firm” in the man’s hoodie pocket, the officer reached in...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the Alberta Court of Appeal decision R. v. Araya , 2025 ABCA 61 where police mistakenly arrested the wrong man for robbery. When the man was searched, police found a loaded handgun in the satchel he was carrying. Did the mistaken identity render the arrest unlawful? Or did the officer still have reasona...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the New Brunswick Court of Appeal decision R. v. Breau , 2025 NBCA 95 where police arrested a woman for drug trafficking. When police searched the vehicle she was driving, drugs — including methamphetamine, MDMA, and cocaine — along with other evidence was discovered. The woman argued the police did not...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses Statistics Canada's most recent crime data from 2024 and once again highlights the increase of assaults against peace officers. Links Statistics Canada Data by Policing District/Zone Police Reported Crime in Canada, 2024 (CSI) infographic Understanding and Using the Crime Severity Index  Police-rep...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal decision R. v. Hoffman , 2025 SKCA 75 where police opened the gate to a waist high, fenced yard and entered to arrest a man seen standing in it. When the officer advised the man that he was under arrest, the man turned and ran into the residence, followed by police. A ph...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the Ontario Court of Appeal decision R. v. Thompson , 2025 ONCA 500 where a man was arrested in relation to a serious drug investigation and later strip searched after being booked into cells. Police delayed advising the man of his s. 10(b) Charter right to counsel for 20 minutes following his arrest, a...