07/28/2026
🎙️ A small amount of cannabis = A life sentence on the table
Listen to a case that changed Canada.
In 1981, David Oakes was sitting in his car near a tavern in London, Ontario when police tapped on his window. They found a small amount of cannabis and some cash. Under Canadian law at the time, that was enough, not just to charge him with possession, but to automatically presume he was a drug trafficker. He didn't have to be proven guilty. He had to prove his innocence. Or face life imprisonment.
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms had just come into force in 1982. And this case : R. v. Oakes, became one of the first major tests of what it actually meant to have constitutionally protected rights in Canada. Could the government override the presumption of innocence in the name of fighting drug crime? The Supreme Court of Canada said no.
In this episode of the podcast Shaping Canada, we are joined by two constitutional scholars from The University of British Columbia's Peter A. Allard School of Law: Professor Joel Bakan, who clerked for Chief Justice Brian Dickson at the very moment this decision was being written, and Professor Marcus Moore, Associate Professor and former law clerk to Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin. Professor Bakan brings a perspective no one else can on how this unlikely case became a cornerstone of Canadian constitutional law.
💬 "I don't think in that moment in 1981 he could have imagined that his case would end up becoming a seminal and definitive leading case in Canadian constitutional law, but that is what happened."
Professor Joel Bakan (speaking of David Oakes)
🎧 Curious how a small drug possession case became one of the most cited decisions in Canadian constitutional history? Hear Professor Joel Bakan and Professor Marcus Moore tell the full story, including what it was like to be inside the Court as it happened.
Listen to the full episode : https://rivercastmedia.com/show/shaping-canada/
This project has been made possible by the Government of Canada.
A Rivercastmedia production.
Photo: UBC