A higher court has dismissed the Attorney General of Canada’s appeal to overturn a B.C. Supreme Court decision to quash an RCMP search warrant related to the Hells Angels’ Hardside Chapter clubhouse in Surrey.
The Crown appealed to the Court of Appeal for British Columbia a 2021 order by Justice Miriam Gropper to quash the warrant on eight categories of evidence, arguing there were “reasonable grounds to obtain eternal video surveillance of the property to be searched” which could have been severed from seven other aspects of the warrant.
But appeal court Justice Anne MacKenzie found there was no basis for Gropper to authorize a search at the clubhouse, located in the 18000-block of 96 Avenue.
“The possibility that evidence could be found is not enough. Relying on possibility would import speculation into the analysis and compromise the privacy interests of anyone connected to a property that is tangentially related to a police investigation,” MacKenzie noted in her reasons for judgment.
Appeal court Justices Lauri Ann Fenlon and Susan Griffin concurred with MacKenzie’s decision to dismiss the government’s appeal.
tom.zytaruk@surreynowleader.com
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