CHARGES AGAINST POT PRIEST IN JEOPARDY

STURGEON FALLS -- A drug case here took a strange twist
Thursday when a judge interrupted the proceedings to advise an
outspoken marijuana advocate that police may have conducted an illegal
investigation.

"That's your whole case right there," Ontario Court Justice Roderick
Flaherty told Michel Ethier, 47.

Ethier, a self-proclaimed "priest of pot," defended himself at the
trial on a charge of possessing marijuana for the purpose of
trafficking.

After hearing some of the testimony from an Ontario Provincial Police
officer, Justice Flaherty recommended that Ethier consider filing a
motion to argue that his rights under the Charter of Rights and
Freedoms may have been violated because of the possibility of an
illegal search of his van that led to the arrest in April.

"It should be raised," the judge said of the Charter question.

"I think it would be an extremely fair and reasonable way to proceed,"
federal prosecutor Paul Trenker agreed.

Ethier was also charged in this investigation with not following a
bail condition to not possess any marijuana, and obstructing police
during the arrest.

All the charges have been adjourned.

If Ethier is successful, it would be the third time this year that
various marijuana charges against him would be thrown out.

Ethier faced an additional charge of possessing the proceeds of crime
after police found $380 Cdn in a fanny pack he was wearing. The Crown
withdrew that charge Thursday.

Describing himself as a reverend with the Church of the Universe -- a
group whose members claim to use marijuana for spiritual growth --
Ethier is also known in this community for two unsuccessful bids to
run for West Nipissing mayor and as a Marijuana Party candidate in the
Nickel Belt riding during the federal election earlier this year.

Ethier was arrested in April after a Noelville OPP officer pulled him
over on Highway 64 in West Nipissing after noticing a red GMC van pull
onto the roadway, travel slowly and accelerate after seeing police.

The officer told court he stopped the van in case the driver wasn't
sober.

The officer said he smelled "freshly picked" marijuana. There was "a
bit of a standoff" when Ethier refused the officer's request to step
out of the van, asking to see a search warrant.

Two West Nipissing Police Service officers and an Anishinabek Police
Service officer arrived to assist.

Court heard that Ethier stepped out of the van after he was warned he
would be charged with obstructing justice, assuming that police would
break the windows and remove him by force.

Police searched the van, and the officer testified they found 10
marijuana cigarettes and 20 grams of marijuana.

Justice Flaherty advised Ethier he could file a motion with the court
to have the evidence excluded because it was seized without a search
warrant.

The case drags an OPP drug investigation under the microscope for the
second time this month.

A superior court judge threw out evidence, including marijuana with an
estimated street value of $2.5 million, against two men charged in the
city's largest indoor grow operation because of the OPP's illegal
search in that case.

Those charges were adjourned to next month.