Saskatoon lawyer reacts to voyeurism case

A Saskatoon man is under investigation for allegedly spying on a woman and underaged girls in the bathroom.

Police are currently seeking a warrant to look through the suspect’s phone.

One of the city’s criminal defense lawyers believes this case highlights the world we live in now with technology.

Brian Pfefferle said the search warrant process is important for protecting privacy rights.

“Many people might say ‘well what’s the big deal? Why can’t they go through the phone?'” he told 650 CKOM.

According to him, it’s not that simple.

“In Canada, we have protection… we are free, according to the Charter, from searches and seizures of our personal information.”

Because of this, there’s a standard police have to meet. Approval from a judge is needed.

“The standard required to search a place is that they need to have reasonable grounds,” he explained.

“Then a judge reviews it and says ‘yeah, that’s sufficient, go ahead and search.’ It’s a protection process for Canadians.”

Even with these checks and balances, Pfefferle doesn’t think warrants make the justice system slow or inefficient.

However, even if police get a warrant, the case isn’t over. Technology could pose a problem in the investigation.

“There’s after-market programs that create encryption on computers or smartphones, there’s password protection, there’s facial recognition,” he said.

Pfefferle said he’s seen cases where charges are dropped because the investigators couldn’t get past a phone’s security.