Case information

None.

Case summaries are prepared by the Office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada (Law Branch). Please note that summaries are not provided to the Judges of the Court. They are placed on the Court file and website for information purposes only.

Canadian Charter - Criminal - Acquittals on charges of possession of marihuana for the purposes of trafficking - Whether the right of any of the Respondents to be free from unreasonable search and seizure pursuant to s. 8 of the Charter was violated because the search of the vehicle was not a lawful search incident to arrest - Whether the right of the Respondent Duy Kien Nguyen not to be arbitrarily detained pursuant to s. 9 of the Charter was violated - Whether the inculpatory evidence was obtained in a manner that infringed the Charter right of the Respondents Hung Quoc Nguyen and David Matthew Reith, as required by s. 24(2) of the Charter, assuming that their right not to be arbitrarily detained pursuant so s. 9 of the Charter was breached.

The three Respondents were travelling eastbound near Broadview, Saskatchewan just after noon on March 10, 2005 in a rental car. It was being driven by Duy Nguyen, David Reith was a passenger in the front seat and Hung Nguyen was lying down in the back seat. The vehicle was stopped by Corporal Ronald Wilson of the RCMP for driving too fast for road conditions. Corporal Wilson observed that Duy Nguyen seemed unusually nervous and was shaking when he provided his driver’s license, and that there was a powerful and permeating smell of cologne in the vehicle.

Corporal Wilson felt he had sufficient reason to detain Duy Nguyen for investigation in relation to the possibility that the group were trafficking in a controlled substance and advised Duy Nguyen that he was being detained for a drug investigation and provided him with his rights to counsel and the standard police warning. Duy Nguyen indicated that he did not wish to contact counsel at that time. Corporal Wilson then decided that he had reasonable and probable grounds to arrest all three of the Respondents for trafficking in marihuana, and proceeded first to arrest Hung Nguyen. Corporal Wilson then turned his attention to David Reith, who was now in the back of the third police vehicle. Without questioning Mr. Reith, Corporal Wilson advised him that he was under arrest for trafficking in a controlled substance, and read him his rights. Mr. Reith did not request to contact a lawyer at this time. Corporal Wilson then asked Mr. Reith whether there were any drugs in the vehicle, and Mr. Reith responded that yes, there were. Corporal Wilson then asked Mr. Reith a series of questions and was told that there was a significant amount of marihuana in the car and that it belonged to all three of the Respondents. Following this disclosure, Corporal Wilson returned to his vehicle and arrested Duy Nguyen.