Expectation of Privacy at the Border: Cases That Should Have Gone to the Supreme Court of Canada, But Didn’t!

Welcome to Cases That Should Have Gone to the Supreme Court of Canada, But Didn’t! This week, lawyer Kyla Lee discusses the expectation of privacy at the border.

Acumen Law Corporation lawyer Kyla Lee gives her take on a made-in-Canada court case each week and discusses why these cases should have been heard by Canada’s highest court: the Supreme Court of Canada.

Alexander Bialski and his wife lied at the border when they were crossing into Canada with a newly purchased RV and motorcycles and said that they had nothing to declare. Upon being investigated for this, the CBSA officers not only dealt with the motorcycles and the motorhome, but also seized his personal laptop and cellphones. At no point did the CBSA obtain a warrant to search those devices despite the fact that the searches ultimately occurred and the information on the cellphones and the laptop was used in the case against him for making a false statement to a border official.

The Supreme Court of Canada missed the opportunity here to test this issue of how far search powers can go at the border.

Watch the video for more.