There is an Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench case where individuals in a Ford F150 vehicle from the Salmon Arm area were passing through Edmonton and were stopped by police and based on observations of the vehicle, its driver and two passengers, some drugs and money were seized.
Defence Action
Mr. Verdurmen argued was that the police did not have the reasonable and probable grounds to search the driver and front passenger or the vehicle.
Decision
The Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench judge found that the investigating officer had reasonable cause to suspect that the driver was involved in drug trafficking but those facts were not sufficient to support the reasonable probability standard to justify his arrest. The arrest was found to be unlawful and the search of his person was also found to be unlawful. Ultimately the evidence that was obtained as a result of the unlawful arrest and search was excluded from evidence because of the seriousness of the breaches of their charter rights.
Client: 31668