R. v. Richard, [1996] 1 S.C.R. 896

Her Majesty The Queen Appellant

v.

Alfred Nicholas Richard Respondent

Indexed as: R. v. Richard

File No.: 24788.

1996: March 28.

Present: Sopinka, Gonthier, Cory, Iacobucci and Major JJ.

on appeal from the court of appeal for nova scotia

Constitutional law ‑‑ Charter of rights ‑‑ Search and seizure ‑‑ Reasonable and probable grounds for search.

Cases Cited

Referred to: R. v. Debot, 1989 13 (SCC), [1989] 2 S.C.R. 1140.

APPEAL from a judgment of the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal (1995), 1995 NSCA 147, 141 N.S.R. (2d) 103, dismissing an appeal from conviction by MacLellan J. Appeal allowed.

S. Ronald Fainstein, Q.C., and Paula Taylor, for the appellant.

Warren K. Zimmer, for the respondent.

The judgment of the Court was delivered orally by

1 Sopinka J. ‑‑ In this appeal as of right, we are in substantial agreement with the reasons of Chipman J.A. dissenting in the Court of Appeal (1995), 1995 NSCA 147, 141 N.S.R. (2d) 103.

2 In particular, we agree with Chipman J.A. that the trial judge erred in his application of the Debot factors (R. v. Debot, 1989 13 (SCC), [1989] 2 S.C.R. 1140) in finding that the police officer lacked reasonable and probable grounds for the search.

3 The appeal is allowed, the judgments of the trial judge and Court of Appeal are set aside and a new trial is ordered.

Judgment accordingly.

Solicitor for the appellant: The Attorney General of Nova Scotia, Halifax.

Solicitor for the respondent: Warren K. Zimmer, Halifax.