Canada Case Law

R. v. Francis

Court

Nova Scotia Provincial Court

First warrant was invalid on its face because its authorized night-time window had expired before the ITO was received and the warrant issued; however the officer's partial opening of the garage door was justified by exigent circumstances (risk to officer/public given flight of a suspect known for weapons and contextual indicators), and after excising tainted material the remaining information in the second ITO was sufficient such that the issuing justice could have properly issued the second warrant; seized items therefore remain in court custody under s.490 pending the separate forfeiture h…

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• Section 8 charter
• Search warrants
• Exigent circumstances
• Information to obtain (ito)
• Section 490 criminal code
• Warrant validity

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R. v. Samuels

Court

Court of Appeal for Ontario

The Ontario Court of Appeal upheld conviction and sentence, found no strip-search or admissibility error, but set aside the funds forfeiture order for lack of proper process.

• Section 8 charter (search and seizure)
• Section 10(b) charter (right to counsel)
• Strip search doctrine
• Search incident to arrest
• Exclusion of evidence s.24(2)
• Grant factors

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R. v. Raju

Court

Supreme Court of British Columbia

Sentencing reasons for Gavin Leznoff on two conspiracy-to-murder counts. The court accepted a joint submission and imposed six-and-a-half years plus ancillary orders.

• Conspiracy to commit murder
• Joint submission on sentence
• Aggravating and mitigating factors
• Ancillary orders (firearm prohibition, dna, no-contact, forfeiture)
• Victim surcharge
• Publication ban

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R. v. Reinders

Court

Supreme Court of British Columbia

Sentence reasons in a drug and firearms case: the court suspended passing of sentence, imposed one year of probation, and ordered DNA, forfeiture, a firearms ban, and a victim fine surcharge.

• Possession for the purpose of trafficking
• Firearms prohibition
• Suspended sentence
• Time served credit
• Victim fine surcharge
• Forfeiture of proceeds and weapons

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R. v. Smith

Court

Supreme Court of British Columbia

The court accepted a joint sentence for firearm-related robbery and possession offences, imposed concurrent custodial terms, and ordered forfeiture, DNA sampling, and a lifetime firearms ban.

• Robbery
• Unlawful possession of prohibited firearm
• Pretrial custody credit
• Joint submission on sentence
• Section 109 lifetime firearms prohibition
• Section 490.1 forfeiture

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R. v. Chaisson

Court

Supreme Court of Nova Scotia

On the totality of the evidence, including expert testimony on drug-trafficking cash handling practices, the proximity of the cash to drugs and paraphernalia, the denomination mix and elastic-band bundling consistent with mid-level trafficking, and absence of evidentiary support for the defence's alternative inference, the court was satisfied on a balance of probabilities (and beyond a reasonable doubt as to non-chemical offence-related property) that the $7,100 constituted offence-related property and ordered forfeiture.

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• Offence-related property
• Expert evidence
• Proceeds of crime
• Search and seizure
• Burden of proof

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Further Detention of Things Seized (Re)

Court

Supreme Court of British Columbia

The court ordered $30,000 seized in a murder investigation forfeited to Canada under s. 490(4) of the Criminal Code, finding the money was tied to the offence.

• Seizure and detention of property
• Forfeiture of proceeds of crime
• Section 490(4) criminal code
• Ex turpi causa
• Inherent jurisdiction
• Seizure-and-detention-of-property

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R. v. Travelers Insurance Company of Canada

Court

Court of Appeal for Ontario

The Crown's admitted erroneous omission to present Travelers' subrogated Xpertdoc claim, combined with the near certainty that the sentencing judge would have ordered restitution, resulted in unjust enrichment of the Crown and a corresponding deprivation of Travelers without any juristic reason; this gave rise to a constructive trust over the portion of forfeited proceeds corresponding to the amount Travelers had paid on Xpertdoc's claim, and the court exercised its discretion under s.462.42(4) and (6)(b) to order payment to Travelers (quantified at $255,800).

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• Relief from forfeiture
• Unjust enrichment
• Constructive trust
• Subrogation
• Victim restitution
• Procedural notice

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R v. Banks

Court

Supreme Court of Nova Scotia

The theft conviction was stayed under the Kienapple principle because it arose from the same acts as the fraud; s.380(1.1) mandatory minimum two-year imprisonment applies because the subject-matter value of the fraud (value put at risk by obtaining about 820,000 lbs of lobster) exceeded $1M even though actual proven loss was uncertain; a five-year custodial sentence is fit and proper given the magnitude, complexity and duration of the scheme, the significant impact on the victim, and the offender's prior similar convictions; ancillary orders including restitution and fine in lieu were limited…

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• Mandatory minimums
• Conditional sentence
• Suspended sentence
• Aggravating and mitigating factors
• Prohibition orders
• Victim surcharge

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R. v. Lynds

Court

Nova Scotia Provincial Court

The court held that the offender had a reasonable excuse for non-payment because he has been incarcerated and the time to pay has not yet commenced; the court may change terms of the order under s.734.3 (but not the amount of the fine); it cannot lawfully extend parole ineligibility by making a default term operate consecutively to a life sentence in a way that affects parole ineligibility in light of Bissonnette; applying Abdelrazzaq the court therefore granted a lengthy extension of time to pay (until May 1, 2044) while preserving the existing default imprisonment term of three years in the…

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• Fine in lieu of forfeiture
• Committal for default
• Extension of time to pay fine
• Consecutive vs concurrent sentences
• Parole ineligibility

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