Impaired driving trial. Issue regarding “as soon as practicable”. Total delay of 57 minutes from the time of stopping to breath testing. 21 minutes of unexplained delay.
Held: s. 8 breach, evidence not excluded.
The period of unexplained delay was sufficient to amount to a s. 8 breach. Certificate not excluded given the prevalent and serious nature of impaired driving. Aside from the Charter, the Crown is not required to prove as soon as practicable beyond a reasonable doubt so as to rely upon the presumption in s. 258(1)(c) CC. Browning, 2015 ABPC 3 not followed. Rilling is still good law. “As a matter of policy and sound criminal procedure, the Rilling principle should apply equally to s. 258(1)(c) as it does to s. 258(1)(g). When one considers the carnage and destruction caused by impaired drivers, I do not think we should be promoting ‘trial by ambush’”.
C. Wilson – Defence Counsel