Monique Dion

The appellant appealed his conviction for possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking, challenging the lawfulness of a strip search conducted incident to his arrest.

The majority held that there were reasonable and probable grounds justifying the strip search, relying on confidential source information, items consistent with drug trafficking found at the scene, and an officer's observation of the appellant reaching toward the back of his pants.

The majority further held that the appellant's failure to cross-examine officers on the impugned information undermined his hearsay argument.

Côté J., concurring, found a s. 8 Charter breach but declined to exclude the evidence under s. 24(2), applying the Grant framework and concluding that exclusion would bring the administration of justice into disrepute.

Appeal dismissed.

Two appellants pleaded guilty to wholesale fentanyl trafficking and received sentences of 7 and 11 years respectively at trial.

The Crown appealed and the Alberta Court of Appeal set a 9-year starting point for wholesale fentanyl trafficking, increasing the sentences to 10 and 14 years.

The majority upheld the starting-point methodology as a permissible form of appellate sentencing guidance, finding it compatible with existing sentencing principles and the deferential appellate standard of review.

The majority also found both original trial sentences demonstrably unfit given the gravity of wholesale fentanyl trafficking, and declined to disturb the Court of Appeal's increased sentences.

The dissent would have allowed the appeals, finding neither original sentence demonstrably unfit and that the Court of Appeal improperly reweighed mitigating factors.