Paul Christopher Adams

In a criminal appeal involving Charter search and seizure and arbitrary detention issues, the appellant challenged convictions arising from a traffic stop, seizure of a knife, and a search incidental to arrest that revealed cocaine.

The majority accepted the lower appellate reasoning that the visual inspection did not amount to an unlawful search, that seizure of the knife was justified, and that arrest and subsequent search were lawful.

A dissent would have allowed the appeal on the alternative appellate reasoning.

The appeal was dismissed and the convictions were upheld.

The respondent, a licensed sealer, was charged with selling blueback seal pelts contrary to s. 27 of the Marine Mammal Regulations.

He challenged the constitutionality of the regulation, arguing it was ultra vires Parliament.

The trial judge upheld the regulation under the federal fisheries power, but the Court of Appeal reversed.

The Supreme Court of Canada allowed the appeal, holding that s. 27 is in pith and substance concerned with the management of the Canadian fishery by curtailing the commercial harvest of young seals to protect the economic viability of the resource.

It is therefore a valid exercise of the federal fisheries power under s. 91(12) of the Constitution Act, 1867.