Ancillary Police Powers in Canada

Ancillary Police Powers in Canada investigates the scope of police powers under Canadian common law, and the implications for our rights, freedoms, and individual liberty.

John W. Burchill is an instructor at the University of Manitoba, chief of staff with the Winnipeg Police Service, and president of the Winnipeg Police Museum and Historical Society. He received the Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba’s Award for Historical Preservation in 2020 and was inducted into the Governor General of Canada's Order of Merit in 2010. His publications include volumes 1 and 2 of Pioneer Policemen: The History of the Manitoba Provincial Police.

Richard Jochelson is the Dean of Law at the University of Manitoba. A widely published scholar, he also spearheaded Robsoncrim.com, a leading research blog that undergirds the Criminal Law Edition of the Manitoba Law Journal.

Akwasi Owusu-Bempah is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Toronto and a senior fellow at Massey College. He has held positions with Canada’s National Judicial Institute, the Public Health Agency of Canada, and Ontario’s Ministry of the Solicitor General. He is the co-author of Waiting to Inhale: Cannabis Legalization and the Fight for Racial Justice.

Terry Skolnik is a research professor at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, and the executive director of the Academy for Justice, at Arizona State University. He is also an associate professor at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Law. He was formerly an officer in the Montreal Police Service.

The authors of Ancillary Police Powers in Canada shatter the widely held assumption that the courts are protecting citizens from overreach by police. This timely, sophisticated, and trail-blazing book is a must-read for anyone interested in police powers and constitutional rights.

Robert Diab, coauthor of Search and Seizure:

I know of no single work that attempts to do what this book does so well: bring together into a single account the history of policing, its relation to the common law, the emergence of the doctrine of ancillary police powers, its practical effects, and its theoretical shortcomings. This book is unusually diverse and substantive – and it is immensely valuable.