Jamie Sarkonak: Judge accuses officer of 'unconscious' anti-Black racism without direct evidence
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That's what happened at the end of March in the case of Robert Cameron, who had been pulled over and detained for having outstanding drug charges and a suspended license, and whose car, in the process, was discovered to be illegally housing an unlicensed firearm.
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The episode began when a Brampton police officer, Anand Gandhi, was notified by his cruiser's licence plate scanner flagged a nearby Jeep for a week-long impound due to the owner's active infractions. Given the pending charges, the officer called for backup just in case. He then approached Cameron's Jeep, identified him, handcuffed him, patted him down, and sat him in the back of the police car.
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'Officer Gandhi specifically denied treating the accused differently or handcuffing him behind his back because of the way he looked, i.e. because he was a Black man,' wrote the judge. 'The officer maintained that it was his 'common practice' to handcuff and place suspended drivers in the back of his cruiser because it was a 'safe place' to speak with them.'
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The judge noted that the officer had pulled over a woman earlier that day for driving on a medical suspension, but didn't cuff her or keep her in the police car. Her car, however, was not being impounded, and she wasn't said to have outstanding criminal charges.
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After other officers arrived, the Jeep was searched for the alleged purpose of taking a pre-tow inventory. Some licence plates were found, which Cameron attributed to his girlfriend, as well as a gun, which was under a cargo mat covered by construction materials.
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Mandhane didn't outright state that the gun was loaded, but she did note that ammunition was photographed by an officer after the weapon was made 'safe of any ammunition.'
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The officer then placed Cameron under arrest for gun charges and attempted to help him reach his lawyer, who didn't pick up; 15 or so minutes later, he asked Cameron if 'everything in the vehicle' was his. (This, the Crown admitted, was an infringement of Cameron's Charter right to speak to counsel.)
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The other alleged rights infringements were less clear-cut. Cameron's lawyer argued that he was unlawfully detained from the outset and that his car was subject to an unreasonable warrantless search, violating his respective Section 9 and 8 Charter rights. There is indeed precedent from the Supreme Court of Canada stating that it's wrong to detain a motorist in a police car without necessity (in that case, the driver didn't have outstanding drug charges) — but it's not enough to get evidence tossed if the officer operates in good faith. The Supreme Court of Canada and the Ontario Court of Appeal have also permitted warrantless inventory searches of cars in the past, but those precedents were not applied here.
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