R v Stairs, 2022 SCC 11 is a constitutional rights decision of the Supreme Court of Canada. The Court established new standards for searches of a person's home after they have been arrested. At issue in the case was whether the traditional common law power of Search Incident to Arrest, which allows police officers to engage in warrantless searches of lawfully arrested persons, was compliant with section 8 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms as it related to searches of the home.
All justices agreed that the traditional standard was not compliant with section 8, and needed to be modified as it related to searches of the home to be constitutional. But the majority and minority split 5–4 on how stringent the new modified standard should be, with the majority opting for one less stringent than what the minority proposed.
Background
Section 8
Section 8 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms declares:Everyone has the right to be secure against unreasonable search or seizureThe purpose of section 8 is to prevent unjustified searches before they occur. A search will be reasonable under section 8 if it is 1) authorized by law, 2) the law itself is reasonable, and 3) the search was conducted in a reasonable manner. A reasonable law under section 8 is one which properly balances the privacy interests of the person with the law enforcement objectives of the state.
One authority that allows searches is the common law Search Incident to Arrest (SITA) rule. The rule allows an officer to search and seize anything from a lawfully arrested person if such action would advance the objectives of the arrest, including the discovery of evidence, prevention of escape, or ensuring the safety of the officer or the arrested person. The SITA rule is exceptional among section 8 compliant laws in that it allows the search of an individual on a standard lower than reasonable and probable grounds, and because it does not require prior judicial authorization (a warrant). The SITA rule is reasonable, not because arrested people have a reduced expectation of privacy, but because the "need for the law enforcement authorities to gain control of things or information which outweighs the individual’s interest in privacy".
There have been several cases, however, where the SITA rule has been held unreasonable as it relates to some types of searches. This occurs due to the heightened privacy interests of the accused, which renders the balance struck by the SITA rule disproportionate. These cases include the taking of bodily samples (R v Stillman), strip searches (R v Golden), penile swabs (R v Saeed), and searches of the phone (R v Fearon). In each of these cases the Court modified the search incident to arrest rule to be constitutionally complaint, with differing levels of burden imposed on the state to justify the search based on the privacy interests implicated by each type of search.
The Court has also repeatedly recognized the sanctity of the home, based on the principle that it as an individual's "castle", and the unique privacy interests it implicates. In its landmark decision in R v Feeney, the Court held that warrantless entry into the home was not permitted except under exigent circumstances.
Factual background
A witness called 911 to report seeing a male driver repeatedly strike a female passenger in his vehicle. Police officers were able to track the car to a driveway of a house. they knocked on the front door, while loudly announcing their presence, but no one answered. The officers, fearing for the woman's safety, forced their way in. They saw a woman with fresh wounds to her face run up from the stairs to the basement. They then observed Matthew Stairs run past the bottom of the staircase. Stairs would barricade himself in the basement laundry room, and then be arrested shortly. After his arrest, the police conduced a visual clearance search of the basement living room area, during which they found a plastic bag containing methamphetamine in clear view. The accused was charged with possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking, assault, and breach of probation.