per The Star:
Police Charter violations persist years after Star found cops violating rights of accused with alarming frequency: report
The continuing cost of police Charter violations — the most common being unlawful searches and seizures and delaying access to legal counsel — is resulting in people accused of serious crimes seeing charges tossed and the undermining of public trust, according to the paper, entitled Unlawful Enforcers: Charter Violations by Major Ontario City Police Services.
“Guns, drugs, reliable evidence of child pornography and breathalyzer test results are being excluded from evidence in trials,” finds the report, authored by Sunil Gurmukh, an adjunct law professor at Western University, and University of Toronto criminology professor Scot Wortley.
“Accused, who engaged in criminal activity,” they write, “are walking free.”
From 2015 to 2025, police in Toronto, Ottawa, Peel, York and Durham collectively were called out in court more than 1,000 times for Charter violations in 627 cases, the study found. In seven of every 10 of those cases, accused saw evidence excluded, charges tossed or a reduced sentence imposed.
