Grow-Op conviction overturned on appeal

Last year, a client of Mr. Tessmer's was convicted by a Provincial Court Judge for illegally growing marijuana.  As part of the Crown's case, they relied on documents that were found at the residence where the drugs were located in order to prove that Mr. Tessmer's client was the person responsible for the grow-op.  The problem, however, was that the warrant did not authorize the police to seize those documents and was very specific about what the police could and could not seize.  Despite this, the police elected to ignore the limitations of the warrant and seized the documents anyway.  At trial, the Provincial Court Judge said the breach was minor and admitted the documents into evidence anyway, however the Court of Appeal allowed the appeal and found that to admit the documents after such a blatant disregard for the JJP's limitations on the warrant would send the message that Charter rights count for very little.  As such, the conviction was overturned.