J. Geiger

The applicants brought a s. 11(b) Charter application seeking a stay of proceedings for first-degree murder and criminal organization charges arising from a large wiretap investigation (Project Siphon).

The total delay was 39 months for the homicide and over 41 months for the criminal organization charges.

After deducting defence delay and a two-month discrete exceptional circumstance for the COVID-19 pandemic, the net delay remained above the 30-month presumptive ceiling.

However, the court found the remaining delay was justified by the particular complexity of the case, which involved voluminous disclosure, numerous targets, and complex privilege issues.

The applications were dismissed.

The applicant, a Black woman, was referred to secondary inspection upon arriving at Toronto Pearson International Airport from Aruba.

Border services officers discovered cocaine hidden in lotion bottles in her luggage.

The applicant brought a pretrial motion alleging she was racially profiled and that her rights under sections 7, 8, 9, and 10 of the Charter were violated.

The court dismissed the application, finding no evidence of conscious or unconscious racial bias in the officer's decision to refer her to secondary inspection.

The court also held that the routine questioning and search at the border did not violate her Charter rights, and that her statements to the officers were voluntary.

The accused was charged with importing cocaine after returning to Canada from Jamaica with a suitcase containing over two kilograms of cocaine hidden in a false bottom.

The sole issue at trial was whether the accused knew she was importing a controlled substance.

The accused testified that she was a 'blind courier' who had been given the suitcase by her boyfriend to transport fish and fruit, unaware of the hidden drugs.

Applying the W.(D.) framework, the court did not believe the accused's testimony but found that the evidence as a whole, including her lack of sophistication and the circumstantial evidence, left a reasonable doubt.

The accused was acquitted.

The accused was charged with importing cocaine after CBSA officers found the drug in food cans in his luggage.

The Crown brought a pre-trial application to admit the accused's statements to CBSA and RCMP officers as voluntary, while the accused brought a Charter application seeking to exclude the statements and drugs due to alleged arbitrary detention, an unreasonable strip search, and sleep deprivation.

The court found the statements voluntary, noting that while keeping the accused awake was minor misconduct, it did not induce the statements.

The court also dismissed the Charter application, finding no detention during routine customs questioning and no unreasonableness in the brief strip search.

A mid-trial ruling also admitted a Certificate of Analyst.