Charge: Robbery
Counsel: Jason Alsbergas
Courthouse: Brampton
Date of Judgment: August 2, 2024
Background
Two young men, following a Halloween party, took a taxi home. After arriving at the destination, the taxi driver made allegations that these two young men, threatened, assaulted, and robbed him. Police arrived in the area and arrested two young men of color who were in the general area and charged them with the robbery.
The Issue
The issue was to determine if whether the two young men of color were in fact the individuals responsible for the robbery and whether the police engaged in racial profiling in their investigation based on the information, they had available to them at the time.
The Strategy
After a careful review of the disclosure, which required extensive review of police body worn camera footage, officer notes, as well as the statement of the complainant, the following was determined:
The initial investigating officer had difficulty articulating his reasons for stopping the two young men, and eventually very clearly stated that he stopped the two males as they “matched” the description provided. The officer further stated that the description they match are “brown” and “wearing a costume”. There was no mention of any further description provided by the complainant and the investigative detention lasted 8 minutes with no indication of any rights to counsel to either of the young men.
The two young men were then arrested while the investigation was ongoing, without any further information provided by any officers to the investigating officer. In fact, it was determined that some of the information the arresting officer had relied upon for the arrest did not match the description of the two young men.
When these factors are considered in the context of the SCC decision of R v Le, 2019 2 SCR 693, which also focused on an investigative detention and the actions taken by police, the grounds of arrest and potential for racial profiling was apparent.
The Result
Following numerous conversations with the Crown Attorney and providing them with the necessary case law concerning the hallmarks of racial profiling, the two young men entered into a peace bond and had all charges withdrawn.