Łutselk'e chief argues comments made during separate arrest shouldn't be allowed in impaired driving trial
CBC
A lawyer for Łutselk'e Dene First Nation's chief says a comment his client made when being arrested for assault shouldn't be used in a separate trial for impaired driving.
Darryl Marlowe has pleaded not guilty to a charge of impaired driving, and is scheduled to appear in court in May. The charge is related to a snowmobile accident on Jan. 3, 2021, which resulted in Marlowe being medevac'd to Yellowknife, where he spent about a week recovering.
Separate assault charges stemming from that same day, which have since been stayed, led to his arrest on Jan. 18, 2021. During that arrest, Marlowe allegedly talked about the snowmobile accident.
But Marlowe disputes the accuracy of what the police officer wrote down from that conversation. He also alleges the officer didn't read him his rights.
On Tuesday, N.W.T. Justice Jeannie Scott heard an application to exclude the comment in question from Marlowe's impaired driving trial. Scott is set to make a decision at the Yellowknife courthouse on April 8.
Appearing by video Tuesday, RCMP officer Harland Venema testified he arrested Marlowe on the assault charges. Venema was an officer in the community at the time but now works in British Columbia.
Venema said he responded to the alleged assault on Jan. 3, 2021, where a witness told him Marlowe had consumed as much as a mickey of alcohol. Marlowe was then discovered severely injured in a snowmobile accident, but Venema said it wasn't clear whether Marlowe was the driver or whether he was struck by the vehicle.
Later, during the arrest on Jan. 18, 2021,, Marlowe made a comment about his Jan. 3 accident, which Venema wrote in a report. A paraphrased version of that comment is that Marlowe was glad he was the one involved in the accident and not his son, because carbide bars had been placed on the skis of the snowmobile, making it susceptible to flipping.
Venema said he typed out the statement on his computer shortly after the arrest, when Marlowe left the station. He then added it to a police report.
While being questioned on the witness stand, Marlowe repeated the comment. Following this, the Crown and defence debated whether he used the word "driving" when he repeated it.
This was not resolved and Justice Scott said she would review the court record before making her decision to determine if it was said.
While on the witness stand, Marlowe alleged that during the arrest he was in a great deal of pain and was on a lot of medication including Tylenol 3s and Ibuprofen.
"I was quite dizzy," he told the court.
Marlowe said he doesn't remember Venema reading him his rights.
The amount of money it takes for people to earn a living wage has increased across the province, according to a new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).
The new owner of Ontario steelmaker Stelco says his company "will not disappoint the people of Hamilton and Nanticoke," where the business's major facilities are based.
A Winnipegger is warning others about an intricate scam she says she almost fell for.
Fort William First Nation is opposing a planned redevelopment of the Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) 117 year old Kakabeka Falls Generating Station, which is located in their traditional territory.
A building that sits at the corner of Sussex Street and Brunswick Avenue has had many lives over the last century — being a church, a school and offices. Now it's set to become housing, at a time when the city sorely needs it.
A Waterloo, Ont., elementary school principal will be sentenced in the new year after pleading guilty to child sexual exploitation charges following a joint investigation that involved the London, Toronto and Waterloo police services.
Students at UPEI have let their student union know what they want from the province this fiscal year, and those priorities are reflected in a 2024-2025 advocacy document brought to the legislature on Wednesday.
Larger communities in the N.W.T. will soon see a boost in their territorial funding to maintain infrastructure and deliver services — like water and waste management — but the increase still falls short of what communities need.
The toxic drug crisis has taken more than 47,000 lives in Canada since 2016 and the synthetic opioid fentanyl has become a household name. But now, what's believed to be an even more potent class of synthetic drugs is showing up in drug busts across the country: nitazenes.
The Liberal government and the NDP have agreed to introduce a two-month GST vacation on certain items before the holiday season, Radio-Canada has learned.
Veterinarians are warning Londoners to make sure their dogs are vaccinated and keeping clean after a deadly virus outbreak was declared in London this week.