On The Wire

Charter Rights and Police Body-Worn Cameras

Canadian law enforcement agencies have been rolling out body-worn cameras requiring police officers to record all interactions with the public in the course of their duties with an exception that allows for deactivation when directed by a supervisor. A recent ruling from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice has highlighted ...
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The Rise and Fall of Do Kwon and Terraform Labs

Cryptocurrency magnate Do Kwon has landed in a New York court where he pleaded not guilty to allegations of a multi-billion dollar fraud stemming from the collapse of blockchain platform Terraform Labs. Mr. Kwon had been extradicted from Montenegro where he was arrested attempting to travel to Dubai on falsified ...
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Pegasus Spyware Maker NSO Group Found Liable for Attacks on WhatsApp Users

The developer of the mercenary Pegasus spyware has been found liable by a California court for the infection of targeted devices belonging to 1,400 WhatsApp users. The ruling will have significant implications for an award of damages against the notorious NSO Group Technologies whose invasive surveillance software has been abused ...
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Exigent Circumstances Justified Warrantless Search of Text Messages

What is the result when the police seize a cellphone belonging to a known drug dealer and then impersonate him in text messages to lure a supplier into an arrest? This question was recently considered by the Supreme Court of Canada in a case where the police asserted that a ...
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Exclusion of Evidence and the Rule of Law

The police showed up around midnight with a warrant to search a residential property in Oshawa, Ontario. Roydel Ramsay-Morris was arrested in the backyard and detained for two hours before he was given the right to call a lawyer. A ruling from the Ontario Court of Justice excluding a loaded ...
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Gun and Cash Tossed by Ontario Court of Appeal

The police in Thunder Bay, Ontario, had grounds to obtain a search warrant for Rashawn Samuels' apartment the day before he was arrested. But they chose to wait until after the arrest to apply for the warrant and denied his right to call a lawyer for nine hours while the ...
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Police Motor Vehicle Stops: Purpose or Pretext?

The alleged sale of two grams of cocaine to an undercover police officer prompted the police to initiate a motor vehicle stop for tinted windows contrary to Alberta’s traffic safety statute. But the officer who stopped the vehicle testified on an evidence exclusion motion that his real purpose was to ...
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TD Bank Pleads Guilty to Money Laundering Conspiracy

TD Bank has agreed to pay US$3 billion in fines and penalties for failing to maintain an anti-money laundering program and became the first bank in U.S. history to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering. The bank's failure to maintain its anti-money laundering program allowed corrupt employees to ...
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A New F.T.C. Report Finds a Vast Surveillance Ecosystem

Social Media and Video Streaming Services have become a ubiquitous part of life and culture in the digital age. But these services do more than let their users connect with the world from the palm of their hands. A new report by the United States Federal Trade Commission has found ...
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The George Santos Indictments

Former member of the United States House of Representatives George Santos has pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft after a tumultuous year plagued by scandal. The charges stemmed from inflating fundraising numbers and faking donor names to secure financial support from the Republican Party. He admitted to ...
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