Top Five 2009: R v Grant

Each year at OJEN’s Toronto Summer Law Institute, a judge from the Court of Appeal for Ontario identifies five cases that are of significance in the educational setting. This summary, based on these comments and observations, is appropriate for discussion and debate in the classroom setting.

R v Grant, 2009 SCC 32, [2009] 2 SCR 353

In this case, police officers stopped the accused on the street without any reasonable grounds.  This search violated s.8 of the Charter. Through the search, the police found that the accused was carrying a gun and marijuana. The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) created a new test for determining whether evidence obtained by a Charter breach should be excluded under s. 24(2) of the Charter, replacing the test from R v Collins.  In this case, the SCC did not exclude the gun evidence because in all the circumstances, allowing the evidence would not bring the administration of justice into disrepute. The full decision is available here.