Trial courts take direction from previous appellate level decisions. However, as can be seen below, trial courts have generated the most police powers out of all three levels we categorized in this section. Trial court judges are essential to the fact finding process within the criminal justice system. Once the facts have been agreed upon in a trial, they are accepted by appellate courts if there is an appeal by the losing side at the trial level. This suggests that trial courts have an impact on appellate level decisions and the facts and arguments heard at the trial level are often relied upon during the appeal process.
Trial courts take direction from previous appellate level decisions. However, as can be seen below, trial courts have generated the most police powers out of all three levels we categorized in this section. Trial court judges are essential to the fact finding process within the criminal justice system. Once the facts have been agreed upon in a trial, they are accepted by appellate courts if there is an appeal by the losing side at the trial level. This suggests that trial courts have an impact on appellate level decisions and the facts and arguments heard at the trial level are often relied upon during the appeal process.
Common Law Police Powers Deployed from 2020-2021:
Common Law Police Powers Deployed from 2020-2021:
In the past 35 years, the Supreme Court of Canada has generated several key police powers that have changed the criminal law landscape. Alongside warrantless roadside detentions (R v Dedman), the Supreme Court has provided police with the ability to detain individuals during a police investigation and search incident to the investigatory detention for police safety (R v Mann). The Supreme Court has also provided police with the power to use sniffer-dogs without a warrant (R v Kang-Brown, R v AM), and warrantless cell phone searches incident to arrest (R v Fearon).
the caselaw by
DECADE
Click on any of the circles below to see a timeline of the expansion of common law police powers in Canada by decade.
Courts have already generated 2 new police powers in this decade. As more cases are decided, this section will be updated to reflect any newly generated powers in this area of the law.
The 2010's saw only a slight decrease in the rate at which common law police powers are generated by courts as 25 new powers were added in this decade.
Between 2000 and 2009, 31 common law police powers are generated - the largest number of any decade we studied.
The 1990s saw a continuance of expansion in this area, as courts generated 23 new police powers in the decade.
Following the 1985 R v Dedman decision, Canada sees an uptick in the generation of ancillary police powers by courts, especially in the areas of roadside detention and roadside sobriety tests.