(JESSICA WALLACE / iNFOnews.ca)
July 09, 2013 - 2:35 PM
A blood sample demanded by police from a 52-year-old man accused of killing two people while drinking and driving will not be admitted, the Crown says.
"It's an obvious breach," said Crown prosecutor Bernie Caffarro today in B.C. Supreme Court.
Under Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms, everyone has the right upon arrest or detention to retain and instruct counsel without delay and to be informed of that right.
The Crown admitted today during a voir dire hearing — a trial within a trial — that a blood sample taken by police breached Wayne Fedan's charter rights. However an additional sample taken by police was not dismissed.
The hearing began last week in Kamloops to determine the admissibility of evidence after Brittany Plotnikoff and Kenneth Craigdallie were killed in a car accident in March 2010 near MacKenzie Avenue.
Fedan faces multiple charges including impaired driving causing death, cause of an accident resulting in death and dangerous driving causing death after allegedly rolling a truck on March 20, 2010 and killing his passengers, Plotnikoff and Craigdallie.
Defence lawyer, Sheldon Tate, told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Deborah Kloegman that Fedan's constitutional rights were violated when Fedan was deprived of information at the accident scene by Const. Mike Penman.
"Mr. Fedan is never given the opportunity to say… I would like to speak to a lawyer," Tate said.
He said Fedan was as ignorant to the legal system at the time as a person from a foreign country watching a police show for the first time.
The voir dire continues today, and a trial is expected in 2014 depending on the outcome of the hearing.
To contact a reporter for this story, email: jwallace@infotelnews.ca, call: (250) 319-7494 or tweet: @jess__wallace.
News from © iNFOnews, 2013