Criminal Law

R. v. Hornick and Aitcheson

Hornick and Aitcheson organized a lesbian bathhouse event called the Pussy Palace. Many of the attendees were partially unclothed. Following an investigation by two female undercover police officers, several male police officers entered the premises to further investigate alleged violations of the Liquor License Act. Hornick and Aitcheson were subsequently charged with violations of the Act. At trial, they were acquitted after successfully arguing that the police conduct amounted to an abuse of process and violated their rights to security of the person and to be free from unreasonable search under sections 7 and 8 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The trial judge excluded all of the evidence obtained at the event. He ruled that Hornick and Aitcheson had standing to bring the Charter application. They were present at the time of the search, and had the ability to regulate access to the event. They had a reasonable expectation of privacy regarding men and there were no exigent circumstances or any urgency that would nullify the requirement that the police use female officers for such a search. The trial judge found the search was akin to a strip search and was unreasonable. There was a temporal link between the Charter violations and the discovery of the evidence, notwithstanding that some of the evidence was obtained by the female officers prior to the search by the male officers.

The police raid ultimately led to an Ontario Human Rights settlement, in which the Toronto Police Service agreed to train its officers about issues specific to policing in the gay, lesbian and bisexual community.

Hornick, Aitcheson and the other organizers of the event were represented by Frank Addario and Vanora Simpson.

Click here to read the Court's decision