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In Canada, criminal courses can be stayed when they take too long to get to trial. The right to have a trial in a reasonable amount of time has been overhauled by the Supreme Court in a July 2016 case, R. v. Jordan, 2016 SCC 27. There is now an 18 month ceiling on acceptable […]
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When can the sale of gardening supplies lead to a conviction for helping to produce marijuana in Ontario? In other words, when can the sale of legal goods to those who would use those goods for illegal ends be a criminal offence? The Ontario Court of Appeal provides some guidance in R. v. Nguyen 2016 ONCA […]
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In R. v. Stoney, 2015 ONCJ 740, an Ontario man was acquitted of drinking and driving because of his treatment by the police in custody. He was arrested around 3:30 pm, but not released from police custody for another 12 hours. The judge entered a stay of proceedings because the man’s Charter rights were violated, […]
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In R. v. Quick, 2016 ONCA 95, the Court of Appeal overturned a guilty plea because the accused was not aware that an indefinite driver’s license suspension would be imposed under Ontario’s Highway Traffic Act. Quick’s counsel had not told him that because he had two previous drinking and driving convictions, his driver’s licence would […]
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In R. v. Cheema, 2016 ONCJ 61 the accused was held in a cell for four hours and 20 minutes after the failing the Brethalyzer tests. At trial, the judge ruled this violated the accused’s Charter right against arbitrary detention and arrest. The violation was not serious enough to exclude the breath readings as evidence. […]
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The prosecution sometimes needs to use a forensic toxicologist to calculate a driver’s blood alcohol content at the time of driving, by using the Intoxilyzer breath-readings at the police station. The toxicologist usually needs the driver’s weight to make this calculation. When a driver calls a lawyer at the police station, the lawyer should generally […]
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The Criminal Code of Canada says that Breathalyzer readings are deemed to be accurate if the first test is taken within two hours of the time of driving. An accused person can undermine this presumption if the machine made an error or was operated improperly by the police. In the recent Ontario drinking and driving […]
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The Criminal Code of Canada says breath-readings are deemed to be accurate if the first test is taken within two hours of the time of driving. An accused person can undermine this presumption by showing the machine was operated improperly. In the recent Ontario drinking and driving case of R. v. Paspaporn, 2015 ONCJ 734, […]
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To make a legal breath-demand the police must believe that the drinking and driving offence happened within the previous three hours. Usually, the police actually stop someone while they are driving, and so the three hour window will not be an issue. When the police do not actually see the driving, however, a number of […]
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In a recent 2015 case, Justice Melvyn Green found a driver not guilty of refusing a roadside breath test. The police explained the test and gave the driver six chances to blow. The judge was not convinced that the driver intentionally failed to blow: I appreciate that the provision of a roadside sample is, at […]
Caselaw
Brett McGarry
- 116 Lisgar Street, Suite 300, K2P 0C2 Ottawa, Ontario Canada
- brett@mcgarrylaw.ca
- 613-884-8576
- 613-691-1373