Kevin Wilson
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Apr 24/02) - A Territorial Supreme Court justice ruled evidence obtained in a massive marijuana bust is inadmissible, just days before the accused go to trial.

Matthew James France and Daniel Robert Winter are standing trial on trafficking charges April 29, but Justice Virginia Schuler ruled police violated their Charter rights when their van was stopped 40 kilometres north of Fort Providence on Highway 3 last April.

"I find that the administration of justice would be brought into disrepute if the evidence is admitted. Accordingly, the evidence obtained from the search will be excluded," Schuler wrote.

All the evidence, including 38 kilograms of high-grade marijuana, and more than $10,000 in cash, was improperly obtained, according to the judge.

The ruling effectively destroys the case against the two men.

"I don't have a case," said Crown attorney Sue Kendall.

Scott Duke, who is representing Winter, said he was, "surprised, but not surprised," by Schuler's ruling.

"I thought we had a pretty good case, and the law was on our side," he added.

According to the April 19 ruling, the RCMP's drug squad warned highway patrol officers to look out for a woman driving a red Jeep Cherokee with Alberta plates, "sometime prior to April 11."

The red Cherokee was never spotted, but an officer did detect a green van with British Columbia plates.

Acting on a hunch, police stopped the vehicle twice, and searched it, turning up hockey bags filled with marijuana.

However, because police only had a hunch, there were no "reasonable and probable grounds" to search the van, which violated the Charter of Rights and Freedom's provisions against unlawful search and seizure.

"A 'hunch' based entirely on intuition gained by experience is not enough, no matter how accurate that hunch may prove to be," wrote Schuler.

Duke said once that happened, "the violations kind of piled up on one another. Because the search was invalid, they were arbitrarily detained."

Furthermore, France and Winter asked to speak to a lawyer, and were told by the arresting officer, "they could do so once they had arrived in Yellowknife," a three-hour drive from the place they were arrested.

"It's a perfect case as an example of what cops are not supposed to do," said Duke.

"The fact that they got lucky does not, in retrospect, give them the right to detain people without cause," he added.

Kendall said she wasn't surprised by Schuler's ruling.

"The judge's decision is very clear, and explains well the concerns the court had over the seizure," she said.

RCMP "G" division spokesperson Phil Johnson could not be reached by press time.