bingorad

Hello

Here's my understanding of canadian search laws - maybe someone can verify that all of this is correct, or maybe this info will just help some people:

Under section 8 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, any Canadian citizen has the right not to be subjected to an unreasonable search.

These rules do not apply to customs officers, immigration officers etc...

In order for a police officer to be able to search you, the police officer must arrest you first. This means that you cannot be searched because due to suspicion. You must be caught in the act, arrested, and then the search is reasonable.

This means that if a police officer sees you smoking a doob, (ie. commiting an indictable offence) the police officer can arrest you, search you and any evidence found can & will be used against you.

If a police officer pulls you over for some traffic offence like running a red light, and if, when the officer approaches the vehicle, sees any evidence of an indictable offence ie. roaches in the ashtray, beer bottles in the back seat, the police officer then has the right to search you and your vehicle. (police may search a vehicle without reason during "emergency situations" like searching for escaped convicts)

All of this makes perfect sense. Police must first have evidence of a crime being commited - they cannot simply look for evidence by searching you and then charge you with that. Any evidence found by such means will probably be inadmissable in court, unless dismissing such evidence will bring "the court into disrepute."

If a police officer approaches you for no reason, I strongly recommend that you stand up for your rights. If they are about to start searching you without your consent and you were not doing anything wrong, simply say to the officer that you are aware of your rights and do not wish to be searched. Then leave. Just walk away. They then must arrest you for some reason to get their way.

The only thing that a police officer has the right to do to you if they have no reason to search you is ask for identification. I believe this is the only thing you must provide to them under any circumstances.

In terms of searching a private dwelling (house), they must have a judge issued warrant or an extremely good reason to come in. They WILL be pushy, but simply tell them TO GO AWAY and CLOSE THE DOOR. They may search a dwelling without a warrant if they believe some evidence is about to be destroyed concerning an indictable offence charge, or if they are "hot pursuit" of a suspect.

I'm posting this because of one experience i had a few days ago when police searched my friend and i for no reason. We did not stand up for our rights, and we got ticketed for some bull**** charge. (im taking their asses to court)

Some police definately abuse their power and take advantage of teenagers!

Good luck, & i hope this info is useful.

ikari

Wow. Dude...
You got a ticket for having weed on you?

If so, that's a helluva lot better than getting arrested... you know it IS illegal right?

I'd let it slide and be happy you didnt goto jail...

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bingorad

hahaha no, i actually didnt have anything on me, and i wasnt doing anything wrong. but i still got a ticket, thats why i'm challenging it in court

ikari

lol ahh, makes sense

what is the ticket for then if you had nothing on you?

CanadianToker

i had a similar thing happen to me
was in a car and the cops came up and it was a whole thing
i didnt have any weed technically on me but there was some in the car
they gave us tickets for "engaging in illegal activities on premises"
which were 70 bucks each
there was a lot of bs about it like there was 4 of us in the car (3 guys, 1 girl) and all the guys got tickets but the girl didnt...whats up with that
plus they had like4 crusiers down there and it took like an hour
and each ticket had a different name on it
but i still live with my parents and there is a whole other thing with them so they can know i smoke still so i just paided it off
another annoying part was that the other 2 guys got their money back like 2 months later because of some technicallity but i still had to pay mine off....

Herb Ninja

Messed up. Where I live, if one person is possesing pot in a car, all the people in it get charged, and we don't have fines, they all go down to the police station. I don't like it one bit.

w1kz

Sorry if this has been done in the past. Does anyone know the laws on search warrants for canada? Say if a police officer asks to search the trunk of my car or my bookbag, does he need a warrant or consent from the owner?

hauptmann

Threads Merged & Moved to Cannabis & the Law.

You can also check out these threads pertaining to the search and seizure laws in Canada in our Cannabis & the Law section.




http://www.marijuana.com/420/showthread.php?t=12618

http://www.marijuana.com/420/showthread.php?t=30712

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Buzzby

Your description of Canadian search rules sounds very similar to those in the US. One difference is that in the US an officer can pat you down for weapons without reasonable suspicion or probable cause. This is to protect the officer. The pat down is restricted to the outside of your clothing.

Many years ago I was at a mass protest rally in DC. I was walking down the street when a car screeched to a halt beside me. Four men got out and identified themselves as FBI agents. I was told to "assume the position" against the wall while one of them performed the pat down. The agent discovered something hard and cylindrical in my left front pants pocket. The other three drew their weapons and pointed them at me while the agent doing the pat down gingerly reached into my pocket with two fingers and extracted - my kazoo! For some reason, they failed to see the humor in it. I thought it was hilarious.

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