Court of Appeal for Ontario

CITATION: R. v. Mamandras, 2008 ONCA 705

DATE: 20081015

DOCKET: C48378

Weiler, Gillese and Armstrong JJ.A.

BETWEEN

Her Majesty the Queen

Respondent

and

Haralambos Mamandras

Appellant

Gregory Lafontaine, for the appellant

Greg Skerkowski, for the respondent

Heard and released orally: October 3, 2008

On appeal from the decision of the summary conviction appeal court dated January 21, 2008 by Justice J.N. Morissette of the Superior Court of Justice, dismissing the appeal from the conviction entered on April 18, 2007 by Justice G.A. Pockele of the Ontario Court of Justice.

Reasons for Decision

[1] The appellant appeals his convictions for failure to provide a breath sample and impaired driving. His summary conviction appeal was dismissed. In this court, he raised the same two grounds of appeal as were raised below:

(1) the trial judge erred in his treatment of the videotaped evidence of the appellant’s discussion with a police officer in the police station; and

(2) the trial judge erred in dismissing his Charter appli-cation under s. 10(b) – his right to consult counsel of his choice.

[2] The summary conviction appeal court judge, in detailed reasons, found no such errors. We agree with her. We note that the summary appeal court judge did say that the trial judge could be seen as erring in taking judicial notice of the operation of the Internet. Nonetheless, she found no error in the trial judge’s finding and dismissed that ground of appeal.

[3] While we might have come to a different conclusion in relation to the efforts of the police officer in locating the appellant’s counsel of choice, we cannot say that finding was unreasonable. The appeal is therefore dismissed.

“K. Weiler J.A.”

“E.E. Gillese J.A.”

“Robert P. Armstrong J.A.”