This book provides a framework for answering two questions. First, it looks at what constitutes an unreasonable search or seizure under section 8 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees that everyone has the right to be secure against unreasonable search and seizure. Second, it examines what the appropriate legal and evidentiary consequences are when an unreasonable search or seizure occurs.

The book delivers a problem-solving approach, applicable to every question of reasonableness, by identifying the general rules that apply to all searches and then identifying the exceptions to the general rule and the rationale for those exceptions (to assist the reader in understanding how to carve out new exceptions or show analogous concerns for maintaining the status quo). Each chapter of the book addresses a different topic essential to understanding the protections guaranteed by section 8 and how to establish a breach of those protections.

Summary Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1: Essential Principles of Litigating a Section 8 Claim
Provides a sketch of the basic principles governing search and seizure law.

CHAPTER 2: What Is A "Search" or A "Seizure"?
Looks at what is protected by section 8, what searches and seizures are, and whose actions are subject to Charter scrutiny.

CHAPTER 3: Reasonable Expectation of Privacy
Examines the concept of a reasonable expectation of privacy, without which there is no basis to make a claim of unreasonable search and seizure.

CHAPTER 4: Determining the Threshold of Reasonableness
Analyses the standard tests used to determine if an intrusion into an expectation of privacy is reasonable and the non-standard approaches to assessing reasonableness in contexts involving broader interests.

CHAPTER 5: Reasonable and Probable Grounds
Defines and addresses the composition of reasonable and probable grounds, one of the hallmarks of a reasonable search.

CHAPTER 6: Privilege in Search and Seizure
Addresses how issues of privilege affect the conduct of searches and the litigation of a claim of unreasonable search and seizure.

CHAPTER 7: Searches with a Warrant--Execution and Litigation Issues
Identifies special rules for the execution and litigation of searches conducted with warrants.

CHAPTER 8: Seizures of Bodily Substances and Impressions
Examines the legislation and jurisprudence for the seizure of bodily substances, in the context of the judicial and statutory limits on the seizure and storage of bodily substances.

CHAPTER 9: Warrantless Searches
Addresses the jurisdiction to conduct warrantless searches in four special circumstances: with the consent of the party, as an incident to an arrest, under the plain view doctrine, and following an investigative detention.

CHAPTER 10: Remedies for Unreasonable Search and Seizure
Deals with the remedies available from a court once an unreasonable search or seizure has been established, both under the Charter and by way of prerogative relief.

APPENDIX 1: Criminal Code Search and Seizure Powers

APPENDIX 2: Related Statute Search and Seizure Powers