KENTVILLE, MI’KMA’KI – The Micmac Rights Association Legal Team won another victory in Kentville Provincial Court as all charges on a 13 count information against MRA Executive member Cody Ward were withdrawn by the Crown today. Mr. Ward was charged with a variety of Cannabis Act, Excise Act, and Revenue Act offences stemming from a July 31st, 2024 RCMP raid on the Mi’kmaq truck house Greenwolf in Forest Home, Mi’kma’ki.
The charges were withdrawn by the Crown after Judge Rhonda Van der Hoek ruled on Monday in a related case, that RCMP Corporal Nicholas Melanson had violated Mr. Ward’s s. 10b constitutional rights by not providing him with access to a lawyer after holding him in RCMP cells for four hours. Section 10b Charter rights guarantee that any person arrested or detained has the right to retain and instruct counsel without delay, and to be informed of that right.
Judge van der Hoek found that the RCMP’s failure to provide Mr. Ward with a legal call, and Officer Melanson’s “decision to put him [Ward] into an interview room, mislead him about being video recorded, and saying, “And you’re still gonna speak to one [lawyer] at a later time, and anything you say at that point be given as evidence”, words that I find undermined the right, led to a misunderstanding of the importance of the right to speak to a lawyer.”
Judge van der Hoek noted that “this had the effect, based on the testimony of Mr. Ward… to suggest to Mr. Ward that anything he said would not be available to be used as evidence, because that point would be reached only later after he spoke to a lawyer. Mr. Ward’s interpretation is fair, and represents a breach.”
With the statement given by Mr. Ward struck from the evidentiary record, the Crown was no longer able to prove its case and consequenly dropped all charges against Mr. Ward.
The MRA legal team, led by former National Chief Del Riley, won a previous case relating to Mr. Ward and Greenwolf in November of 2025, when all charges were similarly dismissed against Mr. Ward and alleged employees of Greenwolf.