INTERRELATED POLICE INVESTIGATIONS AND DISCLOSURE

Abstract

With the advent of technology assisting police in their work at both the investigative and production phases of an investigation, it is becoming common that simple investigations branch out into interrelated and contiguous investigations with one or more defendants. The consequences of this should concern the Crown and alert the defence bar. This paper focuses on a simple drug investigation in Canada that eventually led to the wire-tapping of government officials and the search of provincial legislative offices in British Columbia in 2003. The breach of trust, fraud and money laundering charges that followed dominated the media in the months subsequent and resulted in the litigation of noteworthy concepts in the legal areas of disclosure, privilege and the constitutional right to a fair trial. This paper is offered as a primer of the various issues that will most likely be encountered by both the Crown and the defence when the police present electronic disclosure in very large cases stemming from interrelated investigations.