DATE: 20031124

DOCKET: C38025

COURT OF APPEAL FOR ONTARIO

RE:

HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN (Respondent) – and – JAMES E. THOMPSON (Appellant)

BEFORE:

WEILER, ABELLA AND SIMMONS JJ.A.

COUNSEL:

Jennifer Gleitman

for the appellant

Moiz Rahman

for the respondent

HEARD &

ENDORSED:

November 20, 2003

On appeal from the conviction imposed by Justice David Scott of the Ontario Court of Justice dated December 28, 2001 and from the sentence imposed by Justice David Scott dated January 2, 2002.

A P P E A L B O O K E N D O R S E M E N T

[1] In our view, the appellant’s first two grounds of appeal turn on the question of whether the trial judge was entitled to use the evidence that the appellant had trafficked in cocaine on other occasions in relation to count 3 on the information (the count concerning possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking). We conclude that he was. The evidence was relevant to the appellant’s intention to traffic. See R. v. LePage (1995), 1995 123 (SCC), 95 C.C.C. (3d) 385 paras. 34-38 and R. v. Handy (2002), 2002 SCC 56, 164 C.C.C. (3d) 481 paras. 87-89.

[2] As for the appellant’s submission that the Crown’s cross-examination was oppressive and prejudicial, the Crown concedes and we agree that the Crown’s initial questions were improper. However, viewed in the context of the cross-examination as a whole, they are not sufficient to make the trial unfair.

[3] We did not call on the Crown in relation to any other issues as, in our view, they had no merit.

[4] The appeal is therefore dismissed.