Grabowski v. The Queen, [1985] 2 S.C.R. 434 (1985)

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Grabowski v. The Queen, [1985] 2 S.C.R. 434 (1985)

Grabowski v. The Queen, [1985] 2 S.C.R. 434

Kurt Grabowski Appellant;

and

Her Majesty The Queen Respondent.

File No.: 17866.

1985: May 22; 1985: November 21.

Present: Dickson C.J. and Beetz, McIntyre, Chouinard, Lamer, Wilson and Le Dain JJ.

on appeal from the court of appeal for quebec

Criminal law -- Trial by jury -- Irregularities -- Reference to alleged prior acts in Crown's argument -- Recorded conversations referring to accused's criminal past submitted to jury -- Prejudice caused the accused removed by judge's charge to jury.

Criminal law -- Interception of private communications -- Validity of authorization -- Part of authorization held invalid -- Authorization severable -- Interceptions made pursuant to valid part of authorization admissible -- Criminal Code, ss. 178.11(1), (2), 178.12(1), 178.13(2).

Appellant and five other persons were charged with conspiracy to traffic in a narcotic and with trafficking in a narcotic, namely P.C.P. After the preliminary inquiry, the charge laid against the caretaker of the building where the P.C.P. was made was withdrawn. At his trial before a jury appellant was convicted, and his appeal to the Court of Appeal was dismissed. The appeal at bar was based on three grounds: did the Court of Appeal err in law (1) in affirming the judgment of the trial judge which dismissed a motion for a mistrial made as a result of certain comments contained in the argument of counsel for the Crown regarding alleged prior acts; (2) in finding that the trial judge did not err in refusing to delete from recorded conversations passages referring to appellant's criminal past; and (3) in finding that the authorization to intercept the private conversations was legal? Appellant argued that this authorization was not in keeping with the provisions of the Code since, first, the person named in the authorization, the building caretaker, was only a "straw man" whose name was used as a pretext for obtaining authorization to intercept the private communications of any person using the buildin...

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