Saturday, January 5, 2013 at 6:44PM The officer did not testify that she made a breath demand. [The Court concluded] that it is good law that the failure to lead any evidence as to the existence of a demand (by anyone at any time in the process) is fatal to the leading of any evidence of breath test results. R. v. Haniff, 2012 ONCJ 697
Remember to make (and remember to testify that you made) the breath demand.
Tuesday, January 1, 2013 at 7:58PM The 2012 Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) Canada Legislative Review lists Ontario as having the lowest per-capita rate of impaired driving deaths and Saskatchewan as having the highest. The Canadian national average impaired driving death rate is 3.18 per 100,000 population (2009 statistics). Ontario ranks lowest at 2.03, Quebec at 2.15, Newfoundland and Labrador at 2.82, B.C. at 3.60, Nova Scotia at 4.57, Manitoba at 4.86, Prince Edward Island at 5.58, New Brunswick at 5.58, Alberta at 5.70 and Saskatchewan ranking highest at 8.44. MADD Canada's 2012 Provincial and Territorial Legislative Review
Sunday, December 23, 2012 at 8:28PM The accused appealed his conviction for exceeding .08. Defence counsel argued that the breath samples were not obtained as soon as practicable. The appeal was dismissed and the Court referred to an earlier case, R. v. Bazil, 2012 BCSC 274, in stating what is required by an investigating officer: " .. the correct approach is to ask whether there is a reasonable explanation for any delay and in assessing that reasonableness whether it is logically connected to the officer's duties in relation to investigating the incident." The Court concluded that the officer in Mr. Agnew's case provided reasonable explanations for each step that was taken and that each step taken was connected to his routine investigatory duties. R. v. Agnew, 2012 BCSC 1905
Saturday, December 22, 2012 at 10:59PM The accused was convicted at trial of driving while over .08. Defence counsel appealed and argued that there was evidence that the Intoxilyzer 5000C was malfunctioning because it did not print out a final test result. Crown counsel submitted that the trial judge accepted the evidence of the operator who was a qualified technician...