A. Pashuk

The accused, charged with drug trafficking offences, brought a Charter s. 8 application alleging that police officers staged a break-in at his residence and made an anonymous call to trigger a warrantless entry, leading to the discovery of drugs and cash.

The defence relied on voice identification evidence to argue that the lead investigator made the anonymous call.

The court evaluated expert voice comparison evidence, the status of the ongoing police investigation, and the officers' whereabouts.

The court concluded on a balance of probabilities that the police did not stage the break-in or make the anonymous call, and that the warrantless entry by responding officers was justified.

The application was dismissed.

The Crown brought a pre-trial motion to qualify three police officers as expert witnesses in a prosecution for cocaine importation and money laundering.

The court applied the Mohan and Abbey tests for admissibility.

The court admitted the general opinion evidence of the money laundering expert, excluding portions relating to methods not alleged against the accused.

The court fully admitted the evidence of the cocaine trafficking expert, including opinions on pricing and cell phone use.

However, the court excluded the proposed evidence regarding Mexican drug cartels, finding it irrelevant to the charges and highly prejudicial as bad character evidence.