The Crown applied for forfeiture of the defendant's townhouse under section 16(1) of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act following the defendant's guilty plea to production of marijuana.
The defendant operated a sophisticated grow operation with 303 plants in the residential property.
The court found the property was offence-related property but applied the proportionality test under section 19.1(3).
The court determined that full forfeiture would be disproportionate given the defendant's lack of criminal record, sole operation of the grow-op, and absence of organized crime involvement.
The court ordered partial forfeiture of 50 percent of the remaining equity after accounting for the defendant's father's interest in the property (the mortgage amount paid to prevent foreclosure).
