Supreme Court Judgments

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SUPREME COURT OF CANADA

Citation: R. v. James, 2019 SCC 52,

[2019] 3 S.C.R. 918

Appeal Heard: November 8, 2019

Judgment Rendered: November 8, 2019

Docket: 38616

Between:

 

Her Majesty The Queen

Appellant

 

and

 

Justin James

Respondent

 

 

 

 

Coram: Wagner C.J. and Abella, Moldaver, Karakatsanis, Côté, Brown, Rowe, Martin and Kasirer JJ.

 

Reasons for Judgment:

(paras. 1 to 2)

Wagner C.J. (Abella, Moldaver, Karakatsanis, Côté, Brown, Rowe, Martin and Kasirer JJ. concurring)

 

 

 

 


r. v. james

 

 

 

Her Majesty The Queen                                                                                 Appellant

v.

Justin James                                                                                                Respondent

 

 

Indexed as: R. v. James

 

 

 

2019 SCC 52

 

 

 

File No.: 38616.

 

 

 

2019: November 8.

 

 

 

Present: Wagner C.J. and Abella, Moldaver, Karakatsanis, Côté, Brown, Rowe, Martin and Kasirer JJ.

 

 

 

 

on appeal from the court of appeal for ontario

 

 

                    Constitutional law — Charter of Rights  — Search and seizure — Trial judge finding that police violated accused’s Charter  right to be secure against unreasonable search or seizure when it obtained search warrant based on insufficient information — Trial judge excluding evidence and acquitting accused of drug and firearm charges — Majority of Court of Appeal dismissing Crown appeal — Dissenting judge finding that there was no breach of accused’s s. 8  Charter  right — New trial ordered.

 

Statutes and Regulations Cited

 

Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms , s. 8 .

 

                    APPEAL from a judgment of the Ontario Court of Appeal (Pardu, Nordheimer and Harvison Young JJ.A.), 2019 ONCA 288, 145 O.R. (3d) 321, 440 D.L.R. (4th) 582, 373 C.C.C. (3d) 364, 432 C.R.R. (2d) 74, [2019] O.J. No. 1827 (QL), 2019 CarswellOnt 5350 (WL Can.), affirming the acquittals of the accused. Appeal allowed, Abella, Karakatsanis, Brown and Martin JJ. dissenting.

 

                    Jennifer Epstein, Matthew Asma and Joseph Hanna, for the appellant.

 

                    Scott C. Hutchison and Kelsey Flanagan, for the respondent.

 

                    The judgment of the Court was delivered orally by

[1]                              The Chief Justice — A majority of the Court would allow the appeal and order a new trial, substantially for the reasons of Justice Nordheimer, to the extent that he concluded that there was no breach of s. 8  of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms .

[2]                              Justices Abella, Karakatsanis, Brown and Martin would have dismissed the appeal, substantially for the reasons of Justice Pardu.

                    Judgment accordingly.

 

                    Solicitor for the appellant: Attorney General of Ontario, Toronto.

 

                    Solicitors for the respondent: Henein Hutchison, Toronto.

 

 You are being directed to the most recent version of the statute which may not be the version considered at the time of the judgment.