in a recent ruling, the province’s highest court agreed the section is “of no force or effect” because it violates the constitutional right to be secure against unreasonable searches and gave the federal government six months before the declaration of unconstitutionality comes into effect.
“because the border is not a charter -free zone, it is also not an almost-anything-goes zone for highly intrusive searches like examinations,” wrote chief justice michael tulloch on behalf of the three-judge panel.
“he failed to properly consider the border officer’s good faith reliance on the existing law when conducting the searches, mr. pike’s reduced expectation of privacy in his devices at the border, the moderate length of the delay in providing the right to counsel, and the interests of society in trying these serious charges on their merits,” he wrote.
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“the trial judge’s decision to exclude the child pornography found on mr. pike’s devices , and acquit him, cannot stand.”
now 52, the former oshawa teacher was first arrrested in 2005 in what durham police called t he largest child porn case in the region’s history. he was eventually convicted of sexually interfering with seven young boys and making and possessing child porn depicting that abuse.
according to the ruling, when pike returned home to pearson in 2020 from indonesia, he had 14 digital devices and numerous children’s items in his luggage. he appeared nervous, first telling border agents that he’d been teaching adults but then admitting he’d been teaching seven-year-old boys.
suspicious, the agent demanded pike’s computer password and searched all 11 working devices — but didn’t inform of his right to a lawyer until almost 90 minutes into the search.
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“nearly 50 minutes later, he found child pornography on one of the devices , arrested mr. pike for violating the customs act and contacted peel regional police, who found over 1,600 images depicting the sexual abuse and exploitation of children on two of mr. pike’s devices .”
the crown appealed his acquittal and ontario’s highest court agreed the trial judge “overstated” the seriousness of cbsa’s conduct and underplayed c hild pornography as a serious societal concern that favoured admitting the images and going to trial.
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