OTTAWA -- The Supreme Court of Canada has highlighted the harms of over-policing on racial minorities in a ruling that set aside an Asian-Canadian man's convictions for possessing a gun, drugs and illicit cash.
Police had no reasonable cause to walk into a backyard at a Toronto housing complex and begin questioning 20-year-old Tom Le, the high court said in the 3-2 decision Friday.
Le was chatting in the yard with four young black men late one night in May 2012 when police officers showed up.
The officers were told by security guards who patrolled the housing co-operative that the place was a "problem address" over concerns about drug trafficking in the rear yard and that a suspect had recently been seen there.
Two officers entered the yard without consent or a judicial warrant, and began asking questions and requesting identification. A third officer patrolled the property's perimeter, then stepped over a low fence and told one man to keep his hands where he could see them.
