NCJ Number
91212
Date Published
1983
Length
231 pages
Annotation
This report focuses on two of approximately 50 recommendations made by the Law Reform Commission of Canada regarding police powers and search and seizure in criminal law enforcement. Specifically, it recommends that writs of assistance be forthwith abolished and that it be permissible to obtain search warrants by telephone or other means of telecommunication.
Abstract
These two reforms have been selected for immediate implementation because the required changes in the law are relatively straightforward and because they would have a salutory effect on search and seizure procedures. To abolish writs of assistance, amendments would be required to the Narcotic Control Act, the Food and Drugs Act, and Customs Act, and the Excise Act. To provide for applications to be made and search warrants to be issued by telephone or other means of telecommunication, amendments would be required to Part XIII of the Criminal Code. Reasons given for abolishing writs of assistance are that they constitute a license to search without warrant, that they are unnecessary, and that they are an affront to the common law tradition. Reason for instituting the telecommunicated permission is that it would facilitate access to the requisite judicial officers in circumstances where a personal appearance before a justice would be impractical.