The appellant, a young racialized man, was gathered with four others in a private backyard at a Toronto housing co-operative when three police officers entered without warrant, consent, or warning and immediately questioned the men, demanding identification.
The appellant fled when asked what was in his satchel and was arrested in possession of a firearm, drugs, and cash.
The majority held that the arbitrary detention crystallized the moment police entered the backyard, not merely when they asked about the satchel, applying the Grant framework with particular attention to the racialized context and private-property setting; the resulting s. 9 breach was serious and the evidence was excluded under s. 24(2).
The dissent would have found the detention began only when the officer directed inquiry at the appellant, and in any event would have admitted the evidence given the trial judge's unchallenged findings that the police acted in good faith with legitimate investigatory purposes and the seriousness of the offences.
