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 Basics
The Canadian legal system has a complex set of procedures that legislators and judges follow to make and apply laws. In this section, we provide you with the basics of the legal system in Canada in order to provide insight into how common law police powers expand within this system.
What is a common law police power?
Police generally receive their duties primarily through democratically elected legislators. Judges, however, have the ability to create new police powers. We identify what these judge-made laws are, and we provide some examples of common law police powers that have been created by the courts.
How does a court expand police powers?
When police conduct is questioned in court, judges review the police encounter retroactively by applying the Waterfield test to the facts of the case. Along with the Waterfield test, precedent plays a key role in the expansion of these powers. Click below to learn more.