buy cigarettes
A decision on whether a native woman who runs a trading post in Hammonds Plains is guilty of skirting the tax on buy cigarettes won’t come until next year.
Christine Mason is charged with 55 counts of selling illegal tobacco products, a violation of the federal Revenue Act. The infractions are alleged to have occurred at Chrissy’s Trading Post at 2290 Hammonds Plains Rd. between November 2004 and February 2006.
The trial before Judge Castor Williams ended earlier this year, with the Crown and defence lawyer Rocky Jones wrapping up their closing arguments in Halifax provincial court on Friday.
Crown attorney Jim Clarke alleges Ms. Mason was selling tobacco products without charging the required taxes.
According to the act, only stores on recognized reserves are allowed to sell so-called quota tobacco products to native people.
Ms. Mason’s initial defence was that the charges against her were a violation of her charter rights, claiming she was being discriminated against because she is an aboriginal.