Cannabis cabbie found guilty

Truro taxi driver guilty of possessing marijuana in cab for trafficking purposes

TRURO, N.S. – A Truro taxi driver has been found guilty of possessing cannabis for the purpose of trafficking while operating his cab.

George Fisher, 59, of Wellington Court, Truro is to be sentenced Feb. 13 after being found guilty at trial.

Fisher was charged July 6, 2018 by a Truro police officer who had received previous information from a confidential informant that he was selling marijuana from his taxi.

When arrested, Fisher was found alone in his blue van taxi with 35 grams of marijuana, along with a cellphone containing a text message “indicative of drug trafficking,” Judge Al Bégin said, in his written decision.

Information presented to the court indicated the informant, who was identified as Source A, had witnessed Fisher selling marijuana from his taxi and had provided sufficient “compelling and credible information” to the arresting officer to form “reasonable and probable grounds” to effect Fisher’s arrest.

Fisher’s defence lawyer David Mahoney had argued that Source A was not a reliable informant because his identity was new to the officer and therefore lacked reliability”.

Mahoney had argued that Fisher’s rights were breached because the defendant was arrested without a warrant or without reasonable and probable grounds.

In a written submission to the court, Mahoney said the officer had only known his informant for three weeks, the source had a criminal record and there was no “proven record of reliability.”

However, arresting officer Dcst. James Moody testified that since his initial involvement with the source, he had spoken with the person on a daily basis over a three-week period, the informant had no convictions for fraud, theft or mischief, was not financially motivated to provide information to the police and had never provided any information that created cause to question the person’s reliability or credibility.

Crown attorney Jill Murray countered that the informant was a “compelling source of information” and had first-hand knowledge that Fisher was selling marijuana out of his cab, based on a personal observation on July 5, the day prior to the arrest.

In the final analysis, Bégin based his decision on the evidence and previous case law decisions.

“I must make my determination by assessing the totality of the circumstances available to Dcst. Moody at the time he effected the arrest of Mr. Fisher on July 6, 2018,” Bégin wrote. “I must not look at the grounds used by Dcst. Moody in a piecemeal approach as each factor does not form a separate test, and to do so would be an error.”

The informant initially provided information to Moody in June but Bégin said the officer made no attempt to make an arrest until after the source provided information on July 5 of personally observing Fisher selling marijuana from his taxi, which provided “reasonable and probable” grounds for an arrest.

“The arrest was lawful,” Bégin wrote, following the trial on Oct. 29. “Mr. Fisher is guilty of the offence as charged.”