R.W. Hubbard

The appellant was convicted of offences arising from a home invasion robbery in Leamington, Ontario.

He appealed his convictions on two grounds: (1) that text messages obtained from the service provider should have been excluded as obtained in violation of his Charter rights, and (2) that the trial judge erred in accepting certain incriminating parts of a witness's testimony despite finding the witness to be fundamentally dishonest.

The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal, finding that while Charter breaches occurred, the text messages were admissible under section 24(2) of the Charter, and the trial judge's treatment of the witness's evidence was neither illogical nor inconsistent.

The appellant was convicted of 40 counts including drug trafficking, criminal organization offences, weapons offences, proceeds of crime, extortion, and criminal interest rate offences.

He was sentenced to 19 years imprisonment with a 9.5-year parole ineligibility period.

On appeal, the Court of Appeal upheld most convictions but allowed the appeal in part.

The court found no Charter violations regarding search and seizure or trial delay.

However, the court quashed convictions for entering into criminal interest rate agreements, finding the trial judge erred in applying a presumption of knowledge without requiring proof of mens rea.

The court also reduced the sentence from 19 to 15 years and set aside the parole ineligibility order except for criminal organization convictions.