What are the limits on the power of the police to search in an incident to arrest?

The Chief Justice also referred (at para. 14) to L’Heureux-Dubé J.’s comments in Cloutier v. Langlois (referred to in the quote above), where she recognized three limits on the police’s power to search incident to arrest: (1) the power to search does not mean there is a duty to search, and so the police must exercise some discretion in determining whether a search is necessary; (2) the search must be for a valid objective in pursuit of the ends of criminal justice, such as the discovery of an object that may be a threat to the safety of the police, the accused or the public, or that may facilitate escape or act as evidence against the accused; and (3) the search must not be conducted in an abusive fashion. Lamer C.J. concluded that if these conditions are met, and if the arrest itself is lawful, the search will be “authorized by law” and consistent with s. 8 of the Charter.