The Supreme Court of Canada has struck down a law that allowed police to immediately start wiretaps in urgent cases without getting a search warrant.

The unanimous ruling strips police of an investigative power and gives Parliament 12 months to rewrite the law.

The ruling stems from an unusual case that reached the high court after the conviction of six men in a brutal kidnapping case in Richmond, B.C.

A British Columbia Supreme Court judge sentenced the men to prison terms ranging from 10 to 18 years in the February 2006 abduction of Peter Li, his wife Jennifer Pan and their friend Xiao Chang.

The RCMP started wiretapping immediately after they learned of the kidnapping and only obtained the necessary judicial authorization 24 hours later.

At trial, the judge ruled the police violated the Charter of Rights, but admitted the wiretap evidence anyway.

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