Drinking and Driving Allegations

The officer made the demand that Mr. H provide a breath sample into the roadside breath alcohol screening device. Mr. H felt that he was being treated like a criminal. He asked if a friend could witness him blowing into the device, but the officer replied that they did not need an audience. He was also, at that time, not permitted to call a lawyer.

Our client, a young first time offender with hopes of attending university and starting a career, was able to avoid a criminal record as well as implications for his driver's license.

The case went to trial, during which the Crown decided to offer a deal: if Mr. Z would plead guilty to careless driving, the charges of Over 80 would be dropped.

On a frigid January night, just before midnight, an officer in an unmarked car saw two snowmobiles, one on the shoulder of the road and one on its side in the ditch. As he approached, the driver of the downed snowmobile was able to right his machine and drive it to the shoulder. The other snowmobiler waved the officer on, not aware of who he was.

We successfully appealed our client's conviction. This was a novel issue that had not previously been decided and was reported in a reputable law journal.

The Charter of Rights and Freedoms is very clear in its protection of a person’s right to contact a lawyer upon arrest.

It was a slow night for Barrie police and Constable W. was doing what he sometimes did in those circumstances. He was parked outside a local night spot in the hope of catching impaired drivers as they were leaving. On that late September night he spotted a black Mercedes exiting the parking lot adjacent to the bar. He decided to follow. He followed the Mercedes onto the highway where he reported observing it twice touch the white shoulder line.

In this case, the Crown agreed that our client's rights had been breached by police, and the file was resolved with a creative plea.

Mr. M, a US military veteran and long-time law enforcement officer, was crossing the border into Canada to visit a casino in Niagara.

We were successful in our arguments that there had been infringements of Mr. B's s. 8 and s. 9 Charter rights by the police, and further, that these breaches of Mr. B’s Charter rights were serious enough to justify the exclusion of the breath machine readings.

There were no restrictions or limitations placed on our client's driving privileges and he did not get a criminal conviction. All charges were withdrawn.

This client's trial dates were cancelled and she was free of the burden of fighting criminal charges far earlier than she thought she’d be.