Case information

None.

Case summaries are prepared by the Office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada (Law Branch). Please note that summaries are not provided to the Judges of the Court. They are placed on the Court file and website for information purposes only.

Charter of Rights and Freedoms – Criminal Law – Search and seizure – Evidence – Procedural law – Whether police anecdotal opinion evidence provides reasonable and probable grounds necessary to issue a search warrant to enter a dwelling home – Whether special advocates should be allowed to participate in a challenge to a redacted search warrant.

Acting on tips from confidential informants regarding drug dealing, the police obtained warrants to search Mr. Prosser’s apartment and a motor vehicle. No information from the informants indicated that drug dealing or related activity occurred at Mr. Prosser’s apartment although their information linked drug dealing to his apartment building, the vicinity, and the vehicle. The officer who authored the Information to Obtain the warrants stated in his supporting affidavit an opinion that Mr. Prosser would keep his drugs, money and firearms with him when he was not in his vehicle. The apartment and the vehicle were searched. In the apartment, the police seized cash, cocaine, weigh scales, cell phones, ammunition, and an unlicensed, loaded firearm. Mr. Prosser brought a motion to exclude the evidence for breach of s. 8 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. At the hearing of the motion, the same officer gave testimony that, in his opinion, drug dealers keep drugs, money and firearms close to where they are physically located. The trial judge dismissed Mr. Prosser’s motion and admitted the evidence. Mr. Prosser was convicted of possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking, two firearms offences and possession of proceeds of crime. The Court of Appeal for Ontario dismissed an appeal from the convictions.