Emanations, Snoop Dogs and Reasonable Expectation of Privacy

Introduction

This article, written by Ian Kerr and Jena McGill, looks at the notion of "information emanation." Focusing on jurisprudence involving heat emanations from homes and odour emanations from knapsacks, the writers examine courts' current approaches to information emanation concerning 'reasonable expectations of privacy' in the war against drugs.

Primary case

The article focuses primarily on the case of R. v. Tessling, which had the court hold that the use of thermal imaging by police in the course of an investigation of a suspect's property did not constitute a violation of the accused's right to a reasonable expectation of privacy under section 8 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.