RCMP officers were conducting a road block screening for impaired drivers in Lake Cowichan. Mr. Boyd was stopped and arrested for possession of marihuana when the officer noted the smell of freshly burnt marihuana as he stood next to the open driver’s door window. Mr. Boyd was acquitted at trial as the case turned on the fact that he was arrested due to the smell of "burnt" marihuana versus the smell of "vegetative" marihuana. The British Columbia Court of Appeal upheld the acquittal. The factual findings in Mr. Boyd's case fell short of furnishing adequate grounds for an arrest. As always, such cases are going to be very much fact driven and if different circumstances objectively support an inference that criminal activity is occurring, a court will be entitled to find justifiable an arrest made pursuant to s. 495(1)(b). Further, an arresting officer can rely on inferences arising from observed facts to afford proper grounds for an arrest under that section, as long as the inference is one that is objectively supportable. R. v. Boyd, 2013 BCCA 19