Case information

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Charter of rights - Arbitrary detention - Remedy - Exclusion of evidence - Criminal law - Whether, given unlawful nature of detention and violation of s. 9 of Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, evidence should be excluded under s. 24(2) of the Charter.

Mr. Gagnon was convicted of operating a vehicle contrary to a prohibition order and failing to comply with a condition of a probation order. Police officers responding to a call to check out a suspicious vehicle saw the vehicle being driven by Mr. Gagnon in the area and followed it to verify the licence plate number. When Mr. Gagnon suddenly parked the vehicle in a private driveway and quickly got out of the vehicle with the passenger, the officers asked him if he lived there and, when he said no, what he was doing there. He gave no explanation, and the officers then asked him for his driver’s licence and arrested him because he did not have one. At trial, Mr. Gagnon presented a motion in which he challenged the constitutionality of the police action and asked that the evidence resulting from it be excluded. The trial judge dismissed the motion, finding that the detention in the private driveway had not been arbitrary and that the police had had a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. The majority of the Court of Appeal found that the evidence should not be excluded and dismissed the appeal. Vauclair J.A., dissenting, would have allowed the appeal, found that Mr. Gagnon had been arbitrarily detained contrary to s. 9 of the Charter, excluded the evidence in question and, since it was the only evidence against Mr. Gagnon, entered an acquittal.