Introduction
One of the crucial criminal-law appeals is R v. Le, which brings up questions about the kind of privacy interests protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms’ Section 8. This section protects against the police’s ability to search an individual or property without a warrant. How we, as civilians, interpret our relationships with the police is greatly subjective. Understanding police relations is caused by factors such as those close to us, past experiences, gender, economic and social class, race, and age. Where there is an arbitrary detention problem under section 9 of the Canadian Charter, these subjective encounters are interpreted by a court for determining whether there was detention or not. The Canadian court case decision R v Le 2019 SCC 34 was important in understanding the police’s relationships, which are context-informed, and modify the objective assessment of the Charter’s section 9 arbitrary detention.
Tom Le, the appellant, was socializing with his friends in a townhouse’s backyard rented by one of his friends’ mother. The townhouse was situated in an area facing high-level violent crimes. That same evening, the police were out searching for two suspects (Steph, 2019). A security guard directed the police officer to the townhouse area regarding the two suspects on the run. Without a search warrant, the police officers went into the townhouse’s backyard through a fence’s opening and began asking Tom Le and his company questions. When the police officers asked Tom what he had in his bag, he bolted. A brief foot chase ensued between the police and Tom; he was then arrested. The officers search his bag and found thirteen grams of cocaine and a loaded gun.
When brought to trial, Tom argued that the officers violated his rights to be free from unreasonable search. Therefore, the found drug evidence and firearm should be excluded (Steph, 2019). The majority of the appeal court judges and the trial judge disagreed by stating that Tom’s claim to privacy was weak as a mere transient visitor in his friend’s home. Justice Lauwers, the appeal court judge, viewed things differently. He mentioned that invited presence alone is enough to bring a reasonable privacy expectation. It made no sense to give Tom’s friend, who lived in the townhouse, full protection of rights while...
References
Singer, A. J., Chouhy, C., Lehmann, P. S., Walzak, J. N., Gertz, M., & Biglin, S. (2019). Victimization, fear of crime, and trust in criminal justice institutions: A cross-national analysis. Crime & Delinquency, 65(6), 822-844.
https://www.scc-csc.ca/case-dossier/cb/2019/37971-eng.pdf. Article by Steph brown October 29, 2019.
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now