Law360 Canada ( August 28, 2019, 7:53 AM EDT) -- Appeal by the accused from conviction for possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking. An unsealed envelope fell from the appellant during a struggle with police officers when he was being arrested on a warrant to take an impression of his fingerprints. After moving the envelope around and placing it on the front passenger seat of the police vehicle, the officer claimed to happen to see inside it and recognized its contents from experience as a kilogram brick of cocaine. Two weeks after that, the officer took the cocaine brick and envelope to a forensic identification officer to obtain samples. The judge found that the plain view doctrine applied to support the police seizure of the cocaine brick. She accepted the officer’s evidence that he did not suspect the envelope contained cocaine and did not deliberately manipulate the envelope so that he could see inside, hoping it would reveal evidence but that it became visible to him accidentally. The trial judge found she had no reasonable doubt with respect to the continuity of the police handling of the exhibit although the officer had changed his evidence regarding transport of the cocaine brick and other exhibits. The judge noted the change in the officer’s evidence and that he was grilled about this in cross examination, but she rejected the defence arguments that the officer’s evidence was patently unreliable....