Legal Issues In Policing

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the BC Court of Appeal decision R. v. Vu , [1998] Docket: CA023384 (BCCA) where police suspected a man of dealing in illegal weapons but thought they did not have enough grounds for a warrant to search his house. Police then placed a phone call to the man telling him they had a search warrant and were o...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the case law classic R. v. Poole, 2015 BCCA 464 where police — from inside their cruiser — spoke to a pedestrian standing on the street. After asking some questions and obtaining his name, he was checked on CPIC, which revealed  an outstanding warrant for the man's arrest. Police stepped from their...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses circumstantial evidence and alternate theories to guilt that may inferentially arise, even without an accused testifying. Just when does an inference cross the line from the speculative to the rational? Does common sense have anything to do with it? Or will any conceivable hypothetical or imaginative co...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the Ontario Court of Appeal decision R. v. Dautruche , 2024 ONCA 426 , where an officer found cocaine in a vehicle he had searched after arresting its driver who had fled from a traffic stop and crashed. The officer claimed his search of the vehicle was to find evidence of the driver’s possible motive f...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the Ontario Court of Appeal decision R. v. Hoang , 2024 ONCA 54 where the police covertly installed a pole camera in a public place to record — for 8 days — the front of the accused’s detached home, including the movement of people and vehicles in and out of it and any activities taking place in front....

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the New Brunswick Court of Appeal decision R. v. Morrison , 2024 NBCA 54 where a trial judge personally called two police officers to get more information about a case he was presiding over? Was this out-of-court contact off-side? Or was the judge simply clarifying what he heard in court? Should the ser...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike celebrates the Charter's 42nd birthday! On April 17, 1982 -- when the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms came into force. Listen to learn about some of the early discussion on the s. 8 (unreasonable search or seizure) and s. 9 (arbitrary detention) rights and how you can use the Supreme Court's int...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the Manitoba Court of Appeal decision R. v. Devos , 2024 MBCA 23 where police made a demand for breath samples following a single vehicle rollover where a 15-year-old passenger was killed. Did the officer have the required reasonable grounds for the breathalyzer demand? And what happens when judges don’...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal decision R. v. Maurer , 2024 SKCA 20 where a K9 was stabbed after police tried to arrest a man for sexual assault. Despite an acquittal on the sexual assault charge, the man was convicted at trial in provincial court for resisting arrest (s. 129(a)), injuring a law enfor...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the New Brunswick Court of Appeal decision R. v. Morrison , 2024 NBCA 35 where police conducted an inventory search of a vehicle they towed from a bar parking lot. Did a request to be on the look out for the vehicle, having earlier been involved in a high-speed chase with the RCMP, taint the inventory s...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses recent survey results from polling about the amount of confidence or trust Canadians have in various institutions, including the school system, media, parliament, the justice system and courts, and the police. Just how did the police stack up against these other institutions? No surprises here. Check ou...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses dynamic entries and the legal standard for deviating from the long standing common law rule of "knock and announce" by looking at two recent Ontario Superior Court decisions, R. v. Russell , 2024 ONSC 529 (watch the police entry here ) and R. v. Harper , 2024 ONSC 925 . Learn about the origins...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. TRIGGER WARNING: This episode contains graphic content of animal cruelty which may shock, offend or upset. In this episode, Mike discusses the Newfoundland and Labrador Court of Appeal decision R. v. Picco , 2023 NSCA 33 , an animal cruelty case involving the treatment of four beagles. When authorities found the dogs, they were in “de...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses R. v. Isaac , 2022 MBPC 73 , where police acted on the tip of a confidential informer reporting a man with a particular name would be attending a particular area, at a particular time, by a particular mode of transportation with drugs and cash? When police arrived at the location within the anticipated...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal decision R. v. Arsenault , 2024 NSCA 10 , an update to a case featured in E3| Inventory searches. Things that make you go hmmm?  This case involved a vehicle  inventory search in which a loaded handgun was found in a glovebox and was seized without a warrant. Was this war...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses R. v. Zacharias , 2023 SCC 30 a case involving a traffic stop that led to an investigative detention for a drug offence and the deployment of a sniffer dog. When the dog signalled the presence of drugs, the driver was arrested and the vehicle was searched incidental to arrest. This led to the discovery...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses R. v. Noor, 2022 ONCA 338 where police responded to a 911 report of a man flashing a gun in the waistband of his pants. When police approached the accused — a man matching the suspect description found in the area — he appeared startled and quickly walked away. The  man resisted police efforts to detain...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the case law classic R. v. Baddock, 2008 BCCA 48 where a police officer, acting on a tip about a dial-a-doper, called a drug line and arranged for a meet. When a car arrived at a pre-arranged location but left within minutes, the officer suspected it was the drug dealer's car and pulled it over. Li...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the case law classic R. v. Murphy , 2006 Docket: C42133 (ONCA) where a police officer, acting on a tip about a man with a gun, saw the accused reach into his shirt and appear to be holding a gun tucked into his loose pants as he ran across the street.  The accused was arrested, and in the course of a se...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the case law classic R. v. Williams , 2013 ONCA 772 where a police officer, acting on an anonymous tip about a man with a gun, approached the accused and asked if he was armed. When the accused did not answer, bladed his body, motioned for his waist and did not follow directions, police grabbed his arms...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the BC Supreme Court decision R. v. Gallant , 2023 BCSC 1786 where a police officer testified he saw drugs in view during a traffic stop. Did the judge buy what the officer was selling? Did it help that some of what the officer said about the accused didn't match what was captured on video? What ha...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. TRIGGER WARNING: This episode contains graphic content, including violence, suicide and death which may shock, offend or upset. In this episode, Mike discusses BC's Independent Investigations Office (IIO) and their most recent annual report . Are BC police notifying the IIO of only the cases that should be reported to them? Or ar...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the Saskatchewan Court of King’s Bench decision R. v. McDonald , 2023 SKKB 180 where a police officer, as a prelude to placing a driver in the back of a police vehicle, conducted a protective pat-down before obtaining a roadside breath sample. Was this safety search incidental to the roadside breath tes...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the Newfoundland and Labrador Court of Appeal decision R. v. Churchill , 2023 NLCA 26 where a man —  ejected from a bar following a fight — was taken into police custody for being intoxicated in a public place. While handcuffed, and sitting in the secure rear seat of a police car parked outside the poli...

Provide your feedback here. Anonymously send me a text message. In this episode, Mike discusses the Ontario Court of Appeal decision R. v. Whitfield , 2023 ONCA 479 where the police misidentified their arrestee. Did this misapprehension undermine the officer’s reasonable grounds, rendering the arrest unlawful and the subsequent incidental search — and seizure of fentanyl — unreasonable? Or was thi...