Quote:
Originally Posted by Resolute 14
In terms of Bill 20, Notley is claiming the warrantless powers this grants her government is actually common/the standard in most other jurisdictions. Makarov - can you speak to the accuracy of that statement?
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I haven't had an opportunity to review the proposed legislation at all, but I do uave sme experience with regulatory prosecutions, and none of the sections that have been posted here seem particularly surprising or unusual. As I said, warrantless search powers for the purposes of regulatory enforcement is well-established in post-Charter Canadian law (so long as those powers are reasonable). Generally speaking, Courts are more likely to tolerate warrantless searches of commercial or industrial property in highly regulated industriesas reasonable.
The warrantless search powers posted by Captain Crunch don't me as unusual. They appear to require both reasonable and probable grounds to believe that there is evidence of an offence (which would justify issuance of a warrant) as well as some exigent circumstance that makes obtaining a warrant impractical. That strikes me as consistent with the Charter jurisprudence on warrantless searches generally.
Anyway, I'm sure the legislation or searches conducted pursuant to it will be challenged soon enough and the courts will consider the reasonableness of the search powers etc. Who knows what the outcome will be. But there is nothing unusual or shocking about that either.