Warren A. Lyon at Angel Ronan is being granted the 2025 Law Society Award in Jurisprudence for the following analysis. The Supreme Court case R. v. Patrick addressed whether police searching through garbage bags placed out for collection on a person's property violates the individual's right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The court ultimately ruled that there is no reasonable expectation of privacy in garbage placed out for collection, meaning police can search it without violating the Charter. Garbage remains property in our legal tradition and expectations and a warrant should be sought. If it was seized as evidence without a warrant then it is a section 8 violation but the police could seek remedies under a s.24 application. We have cases like R v. Oikle and others that remind us that police are human too and they sometimes abuse their power and the law. It is submitted that this case is wrongly decided since there is no way to be sure the evidence was not planted by the police or maybe any passers-by could have placed their own garbage in that bag. It was overruled on Appeal. The issue is that if you say there is no reasonable expectation of privacy in garbage placed out for collection, then there is no expectations of continuity in its contents so you can't say the contents of the bag disclose anything about any one particular individual or household.There is no point in pretending there is credible evidence that can be used against anyone. It has low probative value. It's a boring job sometimes and it's not about social authority but someone has to do it. By Warren A. Lyon.
Warren A. Lyon at Angel Ronan is being granted the 2025 Law Society Award in Jurisprudence for the following analysis. The Supreme Court case R. v. Patrick addressed whether police searching through garbage bags placed out for collection on a person's property violates the individual's right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The court ultimately ruled that there is no reasonable expectation of privacy in garbage placed out for collection, meaning police can search it without violating the Charter. Garbage remains property in our legal tradition and expectations and a warrant should be sought. If it was seized as evidence without a warrant then it is a section 8 violation but the police could seek remedies under a s.24 application. We have cases like R v. Oikle and others that remind us that police are human too and they sometimes abuse their power and the law. It is submitted that this case is wrongly decided since there is no way to be sure the evidence was not planted by the police or maybe any passers-by could have placed their own garbage in that bag. It was overruled on Appeal. The issue is that if you say there is no reasonable expectation of privacy in garbage placed out for collection, then there is no expectations of continuity in its contents so you can't say the contents of the bag disclose anything about any one particular individual or household.There is no point in pretending there is credible evidence that can be used against anyone. It has low probative value. It's a boring job sometimes and it's not about social authority but someone has to do it. By Warren A. Lyon.