CRM 200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Electric Utility, Telephone Tapping, Digital Evidence
3 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
LECTURE 5 - Investigation and Evidence Gathering
Searching and Seizing Evidence in Cyberspace
o Few issues as important to Canadians as ability of law enforcement officers to invade
peso’s pia ithout judicial authorization
o Absence of judicial authorization means search presumed to be unlawful; general Code
search warrant provision, s.487(1)
o However, competing expectations and demands: concern over personal safety and
security, need for investigative tools for emerging technologies vs legitimate interest in
protecting privacy, especially over personal information
o Search and seizure would not be okay unless there is judicial authorization
o Apply for a search warrant essentially
o Law gives police to seize but search is a nono
Charter of Rights
o No speifi ostitutioal ight to pia ude Chate of Rights ad Feedos’
o Section 8: everyone has right to be secure against unreasonable search and seizure
o Charter right protects against government intrusion into private sphere of individual
o Privacy interests higher in homes, body than cars, factories – reasonable expectation of
privacy has both subjective component and must be objectively reasonable
o Challenge for courts is to protect privacy interests of Canadians in face of innovative
electronic surveillance measures
o Seizure – what the police actually takes for evidence
o Courts have to determine what is reasonable and unreasonable
o Technological innovation means amount of personal information that can be recorded,
shared with others virtually limitless
o Methods of collecting information: financial, business records, video, camera, texting,
wiretapping private communications
o Greater privacy protections needed in light of new technological developments
o Guarantee against unreasonable search and seizure protets agaist ol easoale
epetatio
o Reasonable expectation of privacy or not?
o Person rents hotel room, invites persons to come and gamble, undercover police
officer attends, video surveillance used, Criminal Code has no video surveillance
provision. Reasonable expectation of privacy in hotel room?
o Police use airplane to fly over house, suspect it contains marijuana grow
operation; plane detects heat patterns escaping from house, leads to police
obtaining search warrant as result. Reasonable expectation of privacy in heat
emissions from house?
▪ Reasonable expectation of privacy - Person themselves needs to have a
reasonable expectation of privacy themselves and even if they did is it
objectively reasonable
▪ ---
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
▪ Court would say , not if the individual has the privacy to the undercover
cop but the court would say, if you talk to another person, would you
expect the conversation be private.
▪ ---
▪ Content Neutrality Approach – If you close the door in your hotel room,
ould ou epet that it’ll e piate. Reasonable expectation of privacy
not in the event, but approaching the issue in general , if you go to hotel
and close door, would a reasonable person expect a private area
▪ ---
▪ Person needs to have a subjective reasonable expectation of privacy and
must be objectively reasonable
▪ ---
▪ Authorities suspected that house was growing weed, flew a plane and
was only able to show heat patterns coming off the house | Off the wall
technology not through the wall technology|
▪ Did the defendant have a reasonable expectation of privacy?
▪ Would the person have a subjective expectation of privacy of heat
coming from your home?
o Reasonable expectation of privacy or not?
▪ Electric utility company installs digital recorder to measure flow of
electricity, turned over to police who suspect marijuana grow operation,
leads to search of residence with warrant, Reasonable expectation of
privacy in utility information? Would it make difference if person signed
consent to turn over information of illegal activities to authorities?
▪ Compute tehiia aies at aused’s house, disoes hild
pornography, tells police of discovery, police obtain warrant to seize
computer. Reasonable expectation of privacy in files on computer?
▪ What about a cell phone containing incriminating evidence? Would it
make a difference if it was not password protected? What if cell phone
rings in front of investigator?
o Renting of hotel room: question is not whether persons who engage in illegal
activity behind locked door of hotel have reasonable expectation in privacy, but
rather in broad and neutral terms ask whether in our society persons who retire
to hotel room, close door have reasonable expectation of privacy: Wong, SCC
(1990)
o Airplane flying over home to detect heat emissions: external patterns of heat
distribution on external surfaces of house not information in which person has
reasonable expectation of privacy – heat distribution offers nothing of
biographical core of personal information: Tessling, SCC (2004)
o Electric utility company installs digital recorder: information disclosed by utility
company yielded no information of intimate or private nature, nothing about
biographical core data: Gomboc, SCC (2010)
o Copute seah of pesoal opute folloig tehiia’s disoe: difficult
to imagine a seah oe itusie, etesie o iasie of oe’s pia tha
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Reasonable expectation of privacy in hotel room: police use airplane to fly over house, suspect it contains marijuana grow operation; plane detects heat patterns escaping from house, leads to police obtaining search warrant as result. Would it make difference if person signed consent to turn over information of illegal activities to authorities: compute(cid:396) te(cid:272)h(cid:374)i(cid:272)ia(cid:374) a(cid:396)(cid:396)i(cid:448)es at a(cid:272)(cid:272)used"s house, dis(cid:272)o(cid:448)e(cid:396)s (cid:272)hild pornography, tells police of discovery, police obtain warrant to seize computer. Supreme court has ruled police need warrant to look at contents of cell phone: Police become aware of drug deal, track accused without warrant. In course of a compliance audit for registered charities, callus is advised to submit documents to revenue canada. Can it refuse this request on the basis that it has a. If so which charter right applies: 2. The police wish to search the corporate offices of callus. Would your answer be any different if the police wished to search the home of henry royal: 3.
