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Page 4 May 15, 2017 • Law TiMes www.lawtimesnews.com probable grounds and absent an opportunity for the accused to assert a privacy interest be- fore the state invasion occurs," says Greenshields, a lawyer with Greenspan Partners LLP. The police had come to the house to obtain the computer af- ter Reeves' spouse contacted his parole officer and alerted him to the fact there was child pornog- raphy on the computer. She allowed the police to en- ter without a warrant and signed a consent form authorizing the seizure of the computer. The police discovered 140 im- ages and 22 videos of child por- nography when they searched the computer months later after ob- taining the warrant, and Reeves was subsequently charged with possessing and accessing child pornography. The Court of Appeal found that the application judge had erred in part of the analysis con- cerning s. 8, which had implica- tions for whether the evidence should be excluded. The application judge had excluded all evidence from the computer, under s. 24(2) of the Charter, which says unconsti- tutionally obtained evidence should be excluded. The Crown said this had gut- ted its case. The application judge found that the police had violated Reeves' rights as there were no "exigent circumstances" to jus- tify the officer's actions, they had failed to comply with a section of the Criminal Code by hang- ing on to the computer for four months without reporting it to a justice and because the informa- tion relied upon to get the war- rant to search the computer was insufficient. The Court of Appeal agreed that Reeves' rights were vio- lated when the computer was searched, but it disagreed that there was any breach when the police had originally seized the computer. Greenshields said that this was a departure from other re- cent decisions. "In effect, the court held that the police could seize from a home and forensically search a computer absent reasonable and probable grounds and that, de- spite all of this, the stringent test for overturning an acquittal was met," he says. Criminal defence lawyer Dan Stein, who was not involved in the case, says the decision shows there are degrees of waiver and degrees of the ability of a spouse to waive a person's Charter rights. "When it's not exclusively your computer, your expecta- tion of privacy might allow for the fact that someone else could give it to someone," he says. "The spouse gave the com- puter to the police, and the Court of Appeal said that's per- fectly kosher." Greenshields declined to say whether he would be seeking leave to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court of Canada. "All I can really say at this point is that a lot of factors go into taking the step of seeking leave to appeal to the Supreme Court on behalf of Mr. Reeves, and that we are carefully consid- ering them all," he says. LT members should be consulted at every step of the way. Lawyers have said they are concerned the law society will reach a conclusion on the issues before membership is properly consulted, but the law society has said it is engaging in con- sultations. The motion also requested that the law society should require paralegal candi- dates to obtain an undergradu- ate degree along with "training equivalent to that provided by law schools in family law, tax and evidence." Lesage says he introduced the motion because he was con- cerned the law society would "reach the incorrect result if they were left to their own devices." At the AGM, Lesage took is- sue with recommendations in the Bonkalo report that would open up certain aspects of fam- ily law to paralegals. He said this kind of arrangement would be unworkable. Lawyers in support of the motion said the complex- ity of the area requires a higher level of knowledge, training and education than paralegals cur- rently receive. Omar Ha-Redeye, a law- yer who has trained paralegals, pointed out that in the Bonkalo report, there is a suggestion that there would be additional train- ing for paralegals. The Bonkalo report also rec- ommended that the law society create a specialized licence for paralegals to provide services. Ha-Redeye said that the re- sistance from the family law bar to change was to blame for the practice's inability to tackle ac- cess to justice issues in the area. "The reason that it has not been addressed is because of us, the lawyers," he said. After lengthy discussion, members voted to table to al- low the law society to continue its consultations and come up with a plan before the motion went to a vote. Membership vot- ed 68-48 to table the motion. If the motion had passed, it would not be binding on Convocation, but benchers would have had to consider it. Unperturbed by the fact that his motion was shelved, Lesage says he is confident that the mo- tion helped to amplify the dis- cussion around the issue. Lawyers and paralegals had until May 15 to submit feedback on the Bonkalo report to the law society. The law society plans to develop an action plan on the issue that it expects to release in the fall. LT Continued from page 1 Specialized licence for paralegals to provide services? Departure from other decisions Continued from page 1 NEWS NEWS NEWS HOSTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH BRONZE SPONSOR PLATINUM SPONSOR NO TRANSFORMATION WITHOUT INSPIRATION The Canadian Lawyer InHouse Innovatio Awards celebrate in-house counsel, both individuals and teams, who have found ways to show leadership by becoming more efficient, innovative and creative in meeting the needs of their organizations within the Canadian legal market. Date: Sept. 19, 2017 Location: Arcadian Court, Toronto 6 p.m. Cocktail Reception 7 p.m. Gala Dinner and Awards Presentation Emcee: Jennifer Brown, Managing Editor, Canadian Lawyer InHouse/Law Times Dress: Business Attire To book your seats or to inquire about sponsorship, contact us at 416-649-8841 or MediaSolutions.Sales@thomsonreuters.com www.innovatio-awards.com GOLD SPONSOR Untitled-3 1 2017-05-09 8:48 AM

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