Case information

Criminal Law — Search and seizure — Right to be tried within a reasonable time — Police seize information in Vulnerable Sector Check application form and Snapchat subscriber information and include information in affidavit in support of application for search warrant — Whether seized information engaged reasonable expectation of privacy — Whether seizures breached s. 8 of Charter — Whether curative proviso could cure privacy breach — Whether delay ought to have been attributed to defence during period when material disclosure remained outstanding — Whether Court of Appeal erred in holding outstanding Crown disclosure did not interfere with orderly progress of case or in upholding attribution of delay to defence which rested on demonstrable factual error about procedural record? — Charter of Rights and Freedoms, ss. 8 and 11(b)

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.

(PUBLICATION BAN IN CASE)

Mr. Dunnett engaged in sexually explicit on-line communications with a 13-year-old girl and with an undercover police officer posing as a 14-year-old girl. Police executed a search warrant at his home. They seized and searched his phone and laptop. Mr. Dunnett was charged with offences including counts of child luring. The search disclosed evidence of other offences which led to a second Information and joining charges. The trial judge dismissed motions by Mr. Dunnett to stay proceedings for unreasonable delay and to exclude evidence for breaches of s. 8 of the Charter, and convicted on two counts of child luring. The Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal.

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