A constitutional challenge by a councillor for a Nova Scotia First Nation who has claimed a treaty right to sell cannabis will not go ahead this summer after a judge ruled there was not enough evidence to show he was operating a dispensary raided by police in 2020.
Judge Jill Hartlen acquitted Chris Googoo this week in provincial court in Dartmouth, N.S., on counts of possession of cannabis for the purpose of distributing and selling it.
Googoo has been public in recent years that he runs two dispensaries, named High Grade, even noting it on his campaign website when he successfully ran for re-election to council this year for Millbrook First Nation.
At a trial last fall, however, his lawyer argued the Crown had not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Googoo had knowledge and control of the contents of the High Grade cannabis store in Cole Harbour, N.S., when it was searched by police, according to Hartlen.
The acquittal is a turn of events for a case that had been set to test whether the Mi’kmaq have a treaty or Aboriginal right to sell cannabis outside Nova Scotia’s regulated system, where all sales must be through the Nova Scotia Liquor Corp.
Lawyers for the Crown and defence had already exchanged briefs on the question, and dates for the challenge under Section 35 of the Canadian Constitutional had been set for July.
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Sean Hocking
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