A recent Ontario Court of Appeal decision that ordered a trial to proceed with illegally-gathered evidence “perhaps signals a great shift in public policy and judicial reasoning,” says Toronto criminal lawyer J.S. Vijaya.
“My colleagues and I fear that some police officers on the street may interpret this decision as a clear and unambiguous green light endorsement from the judiciary to conduct search and seizure operations in any manner they see fit,” says Vijaya.
“A criminal trial is not always a straight pedestrian and narrow path to ‘the truth,’” he adds. “The truth in a trial has to be arrived at by a system of checks and balances which protects all of us from abuses that can be perpetrated by men who are authorized by the state to wear uniforms and carry guns.
“If we are going to look the other way when the police deliberately and wilfully choose not to play by the rules that are set out in our Charter of Rights and Freedoms; if we are going to politely dine on the ill-gotten fruits of real evidence, we will slowly, but surely, inch towards living in an unjust society where jack-booted men will arbitrarily stop us on a whim and demand to see our traveling papers and inspect our luggage,” says Vijaya.
