Accused pleaded guilty to impaired driving and sentencing was adjourned for a curative discharge application. Issue as to whether the Court may impose the driving prohibition at the time of the guilty plea, or, in the alternative, whether the minimum prohibition could later be shortened at the sentencing.
Held: Prohibition may be imposed upon guilty plea, or shortened later.
Imposing the driving prohibition at the time of the guilty plea is the default position. Although s 259 speaks of a “conviction”, the word “conviction” means different things in different contexts: McInnis (1973) 13 CCC (2d) 471 (Ont CA). If the prohibition is imposed at the time of sentencing, there can be a reduction from the mandatory minimum. “The Court in Lacasse departs from the long-standing legal fiction that a driving prohibition is not part of the punishment and deals with it in the same fashion as pre-sentence custody”.
G. Green – Defence Counsel