Court of Appeal for Ontario
Before: Doherty, Laskin and Feldman JJ.A.
Between
Her Majesty the Queen
Respondent
and
Haytham Ayman Meiz
Appellant
Counsel:
Tyler Botten, for the appellant
Moiz Rahman and Moray Welch, for the respondent
Heard and released orally: March 17, 2014
On appeal from the conviction entered by Justice Toscano Roccamo of the Superior Court of Justice, dated June 30, 2011.
ENDORSEMENT
1As ably argued by counsel for the appellant, this appeal turns on the lawfulness and, therefore, the constitutionality of the arrest that took place at the door to the appellant’s apartment. The applicable law is not in dispute: see R. v. Storrey, 1990 CanLII 125 (SCC), [1990] 1 S.C.R. 241; and the trial judge’s factual findings are not challenged.
2Despite some confusion in the trial judge’s terminology between the grounds for detention and the grounds for arrest, the findings of fact made by the trial judge provided ample grounds for the appellant’s arrest. Those findings included:
- the marihuana smoke coming from the room when the police questioned the appellant at the door;
- the appellant’s suspicious conduct at the door when being questioned by the police; and
- the items (a weigh scale, white powder on the weigh scale, and a pill beside the weigh scale) observed on the shelf in the appellant’s room by the officer when he was standing at the door.
3This constellation of facts, viewed reasonably and cumulatively by someone with the experience of the police officer in question, provided ample grounds for the appellant’s arrest.
4As the arrest was lawful and, therefore, not a breach of s. 9, the subsequent conduct of the police, although clearly improper, could not impact on the admissibility of the evidence in question. We stress that we come to this conclusion in the circumstances of this case.
5The appeal is dismissed.
“Doherty J.A.”
“John Laskin J.A.”
“K. Feldman J.A.”