The Supreme Court of Canada will review the case of a man in Sask. who was arrested after police encountered him at the scene of an overdose.
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Published Feb 22, 2024 • 4 minute read
The Supreme Court of Canada will review the case of a man who was arrested for drug and firearm offences after police encountered him at the scene of an overdose. Supreme Court of Canada Justice Michelle O’Bonsawin left to right, Justice Nicholas Kasirer, Justice Malcolm Rowe, Justice Andromache Karakatsanis, Chief Justice Richard Wagner, Justice Suzanne Cote, Justice Sheilah Martin, Justice Mahmud Jamal and Justice Mary Moreau are seen during a welcome ceremony at the Supreme Court, in Ottawa, Monday, Feb. 19, 2024. Photo by Adrian Wyld /The Canadian Press
OTTAWA — The Supreme Court of Canada will review the case of a man who was arrested southwest of Saskatoon for drug and firearm offences after police encountered him at the scene of an overdose.
The top court’s examination is expected to clarify application of the Good Samaritan Drug Overdose Act, passed to help reduce deaths from substance use.
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Under the law, no one who seeks emergency medical or police assistance can be charged or convicted of simple drug possession if the evidence was discovered because that person sought assistance or stayed at the scene of the emergency.
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In September 2020, Paul Eric Wilson was at the scene of a woman’s fentanyl overdose in Vanscoy, a town located approximately 30 kilometres southwest of Saskatoon.
After police arrived, Wilson was arrested for drug possession and, following a search, he was arrested a second time for drug trafficking and firearm offences.
Wilson’s conviction for several firearm offences was overturned last year by Saskatchewan’s Court of Appeal, prompting the Crown to seek a hearing in the Supreme Court.
Wilson, who was freed in September at the age of 42 after his conviction was overturned, spent three years in custody, first on remand and then in a federal prison. In an interview last year, he said he was away from his children and wasn’t able to attend his late brother’s funeral.
Until the conviction was overturned, Wilson said, “I didn’t have a whole lot of faith in the justice system.”
Wilson remained at the scene in Vanscoy on Sept. 10, 2020 after a friend overdosed in a truck and someone called 911. After paramedics and police arrived, RCMP told him and his friends they were being detained for a drug investigation, Wilson said in a September 2021 interview.
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“As far as I know, the Good Samaritan (Overdose) Act is supposed to protect you from that,” Wilson said.
His friend survived the overdose.
The appeal court’s written decision on Sept. 8, 2023 said that after responding RCMP officers detained Wilson and his friends for an investigation into possession of a controlled substance and they were arrested, officers conducted an incidental search, seizing weapons and evidence believed to be connected to drug trafficking.
Charges laid against Wilson included possession of a modified pellet gun and homemade zip guns for a dangerous purpose, unauthorized carrying of a weapon and manufacturing a prohibited weapon.
Wilson was convicted of weapons-related charges in provincial court and sentenced to eight years in prison, less time served on remand.
In the unanimous appeal court decision, Justice Robert Leurer said because Wilson couldn’t be charged with simple possession under the Good Samaritan Drug Overdose Act, his first arrest was unlawful, meaning his Charter rights were violated by the incidental search.
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“I am also satisfied that the admission of the evidence obtained because of the unlawful search would, in the circumstances of this case, bring the administration of justice into disrepute. Without that evidence, the Crown has no case against Mr. Wilson,” he wrote.
Admitting evidence in this case that was obtained through the search would undermine the act and “create the spectre of risk to human life in future cases,” Leurer wrote.
Under the Good Samaritan Overdose Act, anyone who seeks assistance because they or someone else is having a medical emergency can’t be charged or convicted of a simple possession offence if the evidence supporting the charge was obtained or discovered as a result of them seeking help or remaining at the scene.
The act became law in Canada in 2017.
The public’s perception and knowledge of the decision will be another “important piece of the harm reduction puzzle,” Wilson’s lawyer for the appeal, Thomas Hynes, said last year.
“People should, hopefully, take some comfort then, if they’re on the scene of an overdose and are staying there that the police shouldn’t be arresting them for just simple possession charges.”
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Protection under the act doesn’t include outstanding warrants, nor is it “absolute immunity” from everything at a drug overdose scene, Hynes noted.
The John Howard Society of Saskatchewan (JHSS) was an intervener in the appeal. Pierre Hawkins, its lawyer, said last year that the message from the court is the legislation is serious and if police act contrary to it, the court will act to uphold legislation and throw out evidence.
“We were there to make the point to the court that if drug users know they can be arrested and searched, then the legislation can’t work. In order for the legislation to work, drug users have to know that they can trust the protection of the legislation,” Hawkins said.
Wilson, following his release, said he wants people to call 911 when someone has an overdose, because his brother died and no one called until after he was dead.
“It makes no sense,” Wilson said. “And nobody was even charged in that case, and I was sitting there doing eight years for saving somebody’s life and calling,”
— With Saskatoon StarPhoenix files
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