The Supreme Court of Canada is pictured in Ottawa on Friday, March 3, 2023. The Supreme Court of Canada will look at whether police violated a man's Charter rights while impersonating a drug dealer in order to arrest him. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
OTTAWA – The Supreme Court of Canada will look at whether police violated a man’s Charter rights while impersonating a drug dealer in order to arrest him.
The sequence of events began in June 2017 when police in Guelph, Ont., seized the cellphone of a known drug dealer and noticed incoming text messages about a suspected transaction for heroin, likely laced with deadly fentanyl.
Police responded to the messages and arranged to have the drugs delivered to the dealer’s home.
Dwayne Alexander Campbell was arrested upon arriving at the residence, charged with drug-trafficking offences and convicted in court.
The trial judge found that the police tactics did not violate Campbell’s Charter right to be free from unreasonable search or seizure and that, even if there was a breach, the evidence should not be excluded.
The Ontario Court of Appeal dismissed Campbell’s challenge, prompting him to take his case to the Supreme Court.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 30, 2023.
