Abstract
This paper examines whether the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in R. v. Stairs to alter the baseline police power to conduct searches incident to lawful arrest adequately addresses issues of intersectionality and spatiality. The paper’s principal focus is on race and class, which is analyzed through the lens of critical theories around race and space/spatialization, drawing on Black geographies and Critical Race Theory (“CRT”). It will also consider critical legal theories that urge us to conduct a distributional analysis of the differential impacts of legal standards. Importantly, the paper considers how courts do and should conceptualize privacy and domesticity for Black individuals and families. Specifically, it analyzes whether the Majority’s emphasis on police and public safety in conducting warrantless home searches will disproportionately affect Black households and their residents, particularly those located in so-called less desirable or high-risk neighbourhoods. Indeed, like their bodies, Black spaces (e.g., houses, communities) are read as more risk-prone and are approached cautiously and, at times, with pre-emptive violence. Some scholars have contended that the use of pre-emptive state violence is based on racial logic. An instance of this occurs when narratives that associate Black individuals and the spaces they occupy as dangerous influence the way police offıcers perceive public and offıcer safety. Indeed, exaggerated risk perceptions have led to excessive and deadly use of force, dehumanizing and dignity-affronting policing practices.
Citation Information
Jones, Danardo S..
"Exploring the Intersectional and Spatial Implications of the Police Power to Search Dwellings Incident to Lawful Arrest: A Comment on R. v. Stairs."
The Supreme Court Law Review: Osgoode’s Annual Constitutional Cases Conference
115.
(2024).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.60082/2563-8505.1452
https://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/sclr/vol115/iss1/10
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