Canine search without warrant leads to plea deal

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This article was published 28/10/2023 (1056 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Letting a drug dog into a Brandon facility without a warrant three years ago led to a plea deal, securing a four-year jail sentence for a man charged with possession of methamphetamine for the purpose of trafficking, a courtroom heard this week.

Tyler Olson pleaded guilty Thursday to the charge dating from August 2021, when he was found by police to have received a package of one kilogram of the drug.

Both the Crown and defence agreed on the sentence of four years behinds bars, which they acknowledged as a plea bargain due to constitutionality concerns with the police search that located the drugs that ultimately made their way to Olson.

Crown attorney for the federal government, Matthew Sinclair, provided the court with evidence for the charges.

In August 2021, Brandon police deployed their drug dog in a Brandon shipping facility, where the dog alerted police to packages which were later found to contain drugs. The results from the canine search led police to obtain warrants to allow them to intercept the opening of the packages.

On Aug. 4, Olson retrieved one of the packages and was subsequently arrested. The package that Olson retrieved contained one kilogram of methamphetamine and a quarter kilogram of cocaine.

“Both [drugs] … have significant value and can cause significant harm to both Brandon and the Westman community,” Sinclair said.

The Crown attorney cited case law where drug couriers can expect a sentence of three to six years in prison. While he acknowledged Olson’s criminal record with previous convictions for drug trafficking and the large quantity of drugs that he retrieved from the facility, he said that defence had a legitimate Charter right issue because the initial canine search was conducted without a warrant.

As part of plea bargain, the Crown dropped one of the two drug possession charges.

Olson’s defence lawyer, Andrew Synyshyn, agreed with the Crown on the constitutionality of the search being an issue that would have been argued if the case went to trial. He said that the events of August 2021 were his client’s last foray into drug trafficking and he has been working to make changes in his life, including being employed and taking programming while in jail.

Judge John Combs emphasized the negative effects of meth on people and the community.

“Our community, along with many communities has been severely impacted by the presence of methamphetamine,” the judge said. “And people that are involved in providing that methamphetamine, if they are caught, need to be dealt with in a very significant fashion.

“I hope Mr. Olson that you have come to recognize that if you’re part of that supply chain for that substance, that you’re harming a lot of people.”

Ultimately, Combs agreed with the recommended sentence of four years, acknowledging that it gives Olson credit for a guilty plea in a case where the outcome could have been different if the Charter concern was argued at trial.

“It is significant enough to condemn your behaviour [but] it also recognizes the fact that you have entered a guilty plea in a circumstance where you may have had a legitimate defence,” the judge said.

After receiving credit for the time in jail that he has already served, Olson will spend another eight months behind bars.

He was also sentenced to a lifetime weapons prohibition.

» gmortfield@brandonsun.com

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