In today's world, it is essential to provide law enforcement officers with the tools they need to combat local, national and global crime and protect Canadian interests and Canadians themselves. In many cases, the most effective way to investigate a criminal organization is to use an undercover officer or to engage someone who is already a member of that organization as a covert agent. In the process, it may be necessary for the officers or their agents to involve themselves in activities that would be illegal in ordinary circumstances. Similarly, as part of criminal probes, they may be required to communicate for the purpose of prostitution, knowingly give a false name, or place illegal bets in gaming houses. Police pose as prostitutes and communicate for that purpose in order to gather evidence.
Police buy, possess and transport illegal drugs on a daily basis during undercover operations.
In a perfect world this would not be necessary, but patently illegal drug commerce is neither successfully investigated, nor resisted, by uniformed police peering through hotel room transoms and keyholes or waiting patiently at police headquarters to receive confessions. When the accused allegedly brought in money to pay for the promised shipment of hashish, they were arrested. Both were convicted at trial of conspiracy to traffic and conspiracy to possess for the purpose of trafficking hashish. At their trial, the accused argued that the police conduct was illegal because the undercover officers had, in effect, breached the Narcotic Control Act by committing the offence of trafficking themselves. The Supreme Court concluded that the reverse sting operation constituted illegal conduct that was not sanctioned by law.