La Cour d’appel rappelle dans Czajkowski c. R., 21013 QCCA 1311 que les informations que possède chaque agent de la paix ne peuvent être combinées ou « mises en commun » dans l’évaluation des motifs raisonnables et probables.
Voici les passages pertinents :
[19] It is settled law that an arresting officer must have reasonable and probable grounds to believe that an indictable offence has been committed or is about to be committed (s. 495 Cr. C.) and that such grounds must be objectively justifiable.[4] There is also a subjective component to the requirement, in that the police officer must actually believe that s/he has sufficient grounds to proceed to an arrest[5].
[20] The issue becomes more complex when several officers are involved in an arrest. Pursuant to R. v. Debot,[6] it is the police officer who makes the decision to arrest who must possess reasonable grounds, as opposed to an officer who simply executes the order. The information possessed by each individual officer cannot be combined or “pooled” in assessing reasonable and probable grounds. A decision to arrest made by an officer without sufficient grounds cannot be saved by the sufficient information possessed by another officer.
[21] In this case, even accepting the appellant’s proposition that only the information possessed by Detective Paquin must be assessed, that information is sufficient.
[22] In R. v. Debot,[7] the Supreme Court of Canada held that information received from an informant can establish reasonable and probable grounds. Three factors must be weighed, each of them not constituting a separate test. It is the « totality of the circumstances » that must be considered. In other words, is the tip compelling, credible, and corroborated by police investigation?
