Can the police enter an apartment under warrant to search and arrest an accused?

In Strachan v. R., 1988 CanLII 25 (SCC), [1988] 2 S.C.R. 980, 46 C.C.C. (3d) 479 the police entered an accused’s apartment under warrant to search. There were other persons in the apartment other than the accused. The police were aware that the accused had restricted firearms in the apartment. Once placed under arrest, the accused tried to telephone his lawyer, but was prevented from doing so by the police. The reasons offered for this denial was that the police wanted to find out who were the additional occupants of the apartment and to locate the firearms which they knew were there.