Almost twenty-five years ago, Chief Justice Dickson famously proclaimed in Hunter v. Southam [1984] 2 S.C.R. 145, that s. 8 of the Charter “protects people not places.” In so doing, Dickson CJ dislodged property as the primary safeguard against unlawful search and seizure, supplanting it with a vaguely defined notion of a “reasonable expectation of [...]

The Supreme Court will hear arguments this Friday on yet another major s. 8 Charter issue in the case of R. v. Patrick. Recent decisions of the top court on police search and seizure powers have been complicated by deep divisions within the court, as evidenced by the four-way split decisions in the twin cases [...]