The Crown appealed from the dismissal of provincial offences charges arising from the sale of cigarettes to a 16-year-old who produced a falsified school identification card.
The central issue was whether the statutory defence in s. 3(3) of the Tobacco Control Act, 1994 permitted reliance on identification other than the five forms listed in O. Reg. 613/94.
The court held that the regulation created an exhaustive list of prescribed identification and that the lower courts erred in treating it as merely illustrative.
The statutory due diligence defence was therefore unavailable on the facts, convictions were entered, and absolute discharges were granted.
