On October 29, the Supreme Court of Canada rendered its decision to deny leave to appeal in R. v. Delaa, [2009] A.J. No. 493, a case concerning the admissibility of covertly obtained “castoff” DNA evidence under the section 8 Charter protection against unreasonable search or seizure. Two violent sexual assaults occurred in Calgary in September [...]

More than twenty years ago, the late Justice William J. Brennan of the U.S. Supreme Court penned an impassioned dissent in California v. Greenwood, 486 U.S. 35 (1988) to a majority opinion that denied the existence of a reasonable expectation of privacy in garbage.  “A single bag of trash” Justice Brennan wrote, “testifies eloquently to the eating, reading and recreational habits [...]