Suspicious or not, the short shoulder bag, often called man pursewhich many young men wear on their chests these days ? The tastes of the judges of the Court of Quebec in matters of fashion seem to diverge significantly, with very real impacts on firearm seizures.
Judge Nadia Bérubé has just ruled that a Montreal police officer did not have the right to rely on the simple fact that a young Montrealer was carrying such a bag to justify searching his luxury car. A semi-automatic pistol and cocaine were ultimately found there. The officer also cited other suspicious behaviour.
“The adequacy ‘Gucci shoulder bag in a shiny Porsche Cayenne = weapon’ is not sufficient,” wrote Judge Bérubé, excluding the weapon and the drugs from the evidence held against their owner, a certain Paul Goncalves. This decision will also lead to the abortion of the criminal proceedings against him.
However, last spring, Judge Dennis Galiatsatos of the Court of Quebec held that wearing a man purse could legitimately arouse the suspicions of the police.
” THE man purses are very often used to transport illegal firearms. This reality must not be ignored,” he wrote, in a decision that caused much ink to flow. It is the “hiding place par excellence.”
Judge Galiatsatos cited in particular the testimony of a police officer from the Montreal Police Service (SPVM) who stated that approximately 80% of the weapons he had seized during his career were in such a bag.
Evidence dismissed
In the Paul Goncalves case, Judge Bérubé does not see it the same way.
The 33-year-old man had aroused the suspicions of a police officer while he was filling up at a downtown gas station in the early morning of September 25, 2022. According to Sergeant Hamelin’s testimony, the 30-year-old seemed stressed when he saw him. He allegedly surreptitiously passed his shoulder bag to a woman in his passenger seat, after attracting her attention by gently tapping on his bodywork. The bag seemed heavier than normal. For him, these were reasonable grounds for a search.
After calling for backup, the police officer arrested Mr. Goncalves. A Polymer 80 semi-automatic pistol and 4 grams of cocaine were found in the glove compartment of the Porsche Cayenne.
The police officer’s testimony, however, did not stand up to comparison with a video surveillance tape. According to the judge, the police officer and the suspect crossed paths for barely ten seconds, not long enough for the police officer’s detailed version to hold up.
The contradictions between the testimony and the video are “numerous and gross,” according to the judge, who said she had the “unpleasant feeling of having been deceived.”
And in the absence of other clues stated by the police officer, the simple wearing of a man purse cannot constitute reasonable grounds, the judge continued.
“The police officer’s intuition was proven, but that is not sufficient according to the standards of our law,” wrote Judge Bérubé.
“The proliferation and trivialization of firearms is a scourge that must be curbed,” but citizens have the right “not to be bothered by the police,” she added. Weighing the two interests, the magistrate concluded that she had “no other choice” but to exclude the evidence, even if an acquittal would follow.
Me Alexandre Garel, Paul Goncalves’ lawyer, declined to comment. “I will have no comment to make,” he said in an email.
The Crown prosecutor on the case, Mr.e Khalid Alguima, did not call back The Press.