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Panel	Tulloch C.J.O., Copeland and Madsen JJ.A.
Counsel for the appellant	Jane Smith
Counsel for the respondent	John Doe

The Court dismissed an appeal from convictions for dangerous driving, flight from police, and possession of fentanyl for the purpose of trafficking, finding no reversible error in the trial judge's identification of the appellant as the driver based on circumstantial evidence. The sole issue was whether the trial judge erred in concluding the appellant was the driver of the vehicle involved in the police pursuit, where no officer directly observed the driver's face and the appellant was not arrested at the scene. The Court held that the trial judge properly assessed the cumulative force of circumstantial evidence, including CCTV footage, documentary evidence linking the appellant to the vehicle, and drug evidence bearing the appellant's name found in the trunk. The Court applied established principles from R. v. Smith, emphasizing that circumstantial evidence must exclude only reasonable alternatives grounded in the evidence, not every speculative possibility.

Panel	Fairburn A.C.J.O., Roberts and Madsen JJ.A.
Counsel for the appellant	Sarah Johnson
Counsel for the respondent	Michael Chen

The Court dismissed an appeal from conviction for possession of a loaded restricted firearm, finding no error in the trial judge's s. 8 Charter analysis but acknowledging an additional s. 10(b) breach in light of R. v. McGowan-Morris. The Court held that police were entitled to request identification before conducting a lawful search under the Cannabis Control Act, distinguishing R. v. Harris on the basis that the officers were already authorized to conduct a physical search. Although the Court accepted that the appellant's right to counsel was breached from the outset of detention, it conducted a fresh s. 24(2) analysis and concluded that exclusion of the firearm would not be warranted given the serious nature of the offence and the fact that no inculpatory evidence was obtained through the breaches. The Court noted that the seriousness of the s. 10(b) breach was mitigated by the unclear state of the law at the time regarding suspension of counsel rights during cannabis searches.

Panel	Simmons, Favreau and Rahman JJ.A.
Counsel for the appellant	David Park
Counsel for the respondent	Lisa Tremblay

The Court dismissed an appeal from conviction for possession of fentanyl for the purpose of trafficking, finding that the trial judge properly upheld the vehicle search warrant despite deficiencies in the Information to Obtain. The Court held that the trial judge correctly denied leave to cross-examine the affiant because the appellant's complaints about inferences and conclusory statements in the ITO afforded no basis for cross-examination, relying on R. v. Victoria. The Court found that multiple surveillance observations of suspected drug transactions provided sufficient corroboration under R. v. Debot to support reasonable and probable grounds for the search warrant. The Court rejected the argument that the ITO was so carelessly drafted as to engage the court's residual discretion to quash, noting that the high standard requires conduct that subverted the pre-authorization process through deliberate non-disclosure, bad faith, or fraudulent misrepresentation as set out in R. v. Paryniuk.

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