Der Oberste Gerichtshof Kanadas bestätigt Sask. Freispruch eines Mannes unter Anwendung des Gesetzes des barmherzigen Samariters | CBC-Nachrichten

The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the Good Samaritan Act, which protects people from being charged or convicted with possession when they remain at the scene of an overdose and call 911, also necessarily protects them from arrest for possession.

The defendant called 911 and was then arrested for possession. A search resulting from that arrest uncovered evidence of other offenses, and he was ultimately charged and convicted of firearms offenses and identity theft related offenses. The Court of Appeal threw out the convictions on the basis that the arrest, and therefore the resulting search, was illegal. The Crown appealed to the SCC.

The majority’s opinion relies on effectively two arguments. First, that the intention of Parliament was clearly to save lives by incentivizing drug users to call for help without fear that they themselves would be arrested for using. Second, that the act of arrest is inextricably linked to the act of charging, and therefore immunity from charges must also include immunity from arrest.

The dissent points out that Parliament explicitly stated immunity only for charges and convictions, not for arrests. Since the defendant was never charged for or convicted of possession, their rights were not breached. The dissent also disagrees with the majority’s opinion that arrest is inextricably tied to charges, noting that the Criminal Code allows police to arrest a person they have reasonable grounds to believe is about to commit an indictable offense. Since police have the authority in these cases to arrest someone for something they cannot charge the person with, arrest and charges are intrinsically separate.