Defence application for exclusion of evidence (23 recorded phone conversations and one unrecorded private communication in a vehicle which police listened to through audio probe) on the basis of section 8 breach. Police had three authorizations to intercept communications in relation to two homicides and a shooting, none of which named accused as target.
Held: No exclusion under s 24(2)
Court distinguished failure to name the accused as a target in the phone interceptions from the breach regarding the conversation in the vehicle. Former breach was minor as all 23 phone calls were discoverable by other lawful means. The breach regarding the vehicle audio probe was more serious, though it was a “a time-limited interception of a vehicle associated with a named target, undertaken during an exigent police operation”. Charges were serious, and exclusion would have left Crown with a heavily circumstantial case.
G. Wolch – Defence Counsel