HALIFAX — A man who successfully argued his charter rights were violated when he was arrested with three kilograms of cocaine at Halifax airport four years ago has to stand trial again, Nova Scotia Appeal Court has decided.
The original trial judge ruled that Mandeep Singh Chehil’s charter rights were breached on Nov. 16, 2005, when WestJet workers allowed the RCMP to check his electronic ticket information, court documents say.
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The Crown appealed and a hearing was held Sept. 21, with the Canadian Civil Liberties Association having intervener status.
The Appeal Court ruled that a balance must be struck between privacy rights and protection of the public from crime. Protection of privacy under the charter “extends only to reveal intimate details about a person’s lifestyle and personal choices or meaningful information intended to be private and concealed and in relation to which there is a reasonable expectation of privacy,” the court decision said.
The Appeal Court didn’t accept Chehil’s contention that police violated his rights by looking at his ticket information. The court also said the trial judge erred because he didn’t consider the “totality of the circumstances test” in deciding whether Chehil had a reasonable expectation of privacy regarding his ticket information.
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