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| Patrick J Ducharme |
In Gomboc the police believed that the residents of a private home might be producing marijuana. They obtained the consent of their utility company without the use of a warrant to install a digital recording ammeter (DRA) on the electrical power sources of the home. The device measures the electric power flowing into the residence. Based on the readings they were able to obtain a warrant to search the house, and in the house, they seized significant quantities of marijuana.
The Supreme Court of Canada was divided over the questions relating to the owners’ reasonable expectations of privacy. The decision of the court involves two majority decisions, one signed by four members, and, one signed by three, with a dissent signed by the other two Judges. In effect the court adopted the rule that the DRA does not reveal any more information than the consumption of electricity and therefore did not amount to an invasion of one’s reasonable expectation of privacy. The dissenting Judges, however, found the information was clearly “core biographical information”, and the use of a DRA could only serve as a substitute for a physical search of the suspect’s home if the police could have obtained a search warrant to search the home.
The above is the an excerpt of Patrick J Ducharme's book, Canadian Criminal Procedure, available at Amazon or in bulk through MedicaLegal Publishing along with Criminal Trial Strategies.
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