Case information

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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.

Charter of Rights – Criminal Law– Right to liberty – Right to silence – Arbitrary detention – Reasonableness of verdict – Evidence – Police stage a traffic stop during a Mr. Big operation ––Whether applicant was arbitrarily detained – Whether right to silence was infringed by an undercover officer telling applicant to correctly identify himself to uniformed police officers – Out-of-court statements admitted as evidence of intent to commit second degree murder – Whether verdict of second-degree murder was unreasonable because it was based upon unreliable evidence

The applicant stabbed a man with a machete during a botched home invasion robbery. To prove second degree murder, the Crown relied in part on statements obtained in a Mr. Big operation as proof of intent. During the undercover Mr. Big operation, the police prepared the applicant for his meeting with “the boss” by staging a false traffic stop. During the stop, an undercover officer told the applicant to reveal his true name, a uniformed officer obtained the applicant’s name, and the uniformed officer told the applicant to contact a homicide detective who wanted to talk to him. Two days later the applicant met the “boss”. He confessed to the boss but he also made false statements. In a voir dire into the admissibility of the Mr. Big evidence, the applicant argued that the traffic stop breached the rights to silence and to be free from arbitrary detention. He also argued that the Mr. Big evidence was unreliable.