In a criminal trial for possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking, the accused brought Charter applications challenging the police approach, detention, vehicle search, and access to counsel.
The court found the officers had lawful grounds to investigate based on the smell of burnt cannabis, an apparent lit cannabis cigarette, and an open cannabis container in the vehicle, and therefore found no breach of ss. 8 or 9 of the Charter.
The court did find two modest breaches of s. 10(b), including failure to ask whether the accused wished to contact counsel and failure to facilitate access after the right was asserted.
Applying the Grant framework, the court held the breaches were not sufficiently serious or impactful to justify exclusion of the reliable cocaine evidence, which was critical to the prosecution’s case.
The Charter application was dismissed.
