Rapper wants justice after Ottawa police 'tore house apart' in failed no-knock raid

Drug charges have been dropped against an Ottawa man whose home was raided by a rifle-toting SWAT team, but he says he's not satisfied because there's been no accountability for a police operation that legal experts note was based on flimsy evidence, and that he says has traumatized him.

His lawyer and an expert on policing both said the case highlights problems with the kind of no-knock raids where officers bash down someone's door and confront them at gunpoint — including the basic question of whether there's any data to show the tactic is effective. 

"It's just a mess of a case," said Chris Woof, a property manager and part-time hip-hop musician from east-end Ottawa. "They tore my house apart, literally, and left it in a giant mess … What's to stop them from doing it again?"

Two years ago, the Ottawa police drug squad developed a new source, a person "familiar with" cocaine, crack and other drugs, according to allegations police filed in court. The confidential informant stood to get paid for correct tips they provided, even hearsay.

Their very first tip was about Woof, alleging simply that he sold "large amounts of" cocaine and crack.

Based on that tip and subsequent surveillance on Woof, in which police never saw any drugs but did find it suspicious that two different men left his home with a hand clenched, police obtained a search warrant.

A dozen officers in commando gear bashed in Woof's door in the early morning of July 14, 2020. In a security video viewed by CBC News, they are seen deploying a flashbang grenade before streaming in, rifles drawn. Investigators seized 70 oxycodone pills, which Woof had old prescriptions for, a small amount of "unknown white powder" that tests later showed was not a controlled substance, and tens of thousands of dollars in cash.

Woof told CBC News last year the money was from his contracting business, where he often deals in cash. 

WATCH | Christopher Woof discusses impact police raid had on him:

Police found no cocaine or crack. 

"The evidence upon which the warrant was based, I think, was weak," said Woof's lawyer, Paolo Giancaterino, who's worked on more than 75 cases in the Ottawa area involving search warrants for drugs. 

"It seems that it's quite easy to get a search warrant these days and to enter someone's home violently."

Based on the oxycodone and the cash, police charged Woof with possession of a controlled substance with intent to traffic, which in the case of opioids carries a maximum sentence of life in prison, and possession of the proceeds of crime.

The case dragged on in court for nearly two years. Then, as the prosecution and defence were arguing to a judge whether the charges should be tossed because of the delays, the Crown decided to withdraw the criminal charges.