Challenge
The defence raised two Charter issues. First, whether police had lawful grounds to demand a roadside breath sample. Second, whether the station tests remained admissible if the initial demand was invalid. Police stopped Mr. R late at night in downtown Toronto after he left a restaurant. The officer testified that a faint smell of alcohol and “slightly red eyes” justified the roadside screening demand.
Disclosure, however, revealed inconsistencies about:
- Whether Mr. R made any admission of drinking
- The strength and source of the alleged odour
- Environmental conditions at the time of the stop
- The officer’s notes, which he recorded hours after the arrest
Our guide to what police can and cannot do at a RIDE stop sets out the rules that govern a roadside demand.
Our Process
- Planning the case. We reviewed cruiser dash camera footage, body-worn camera recordings and notebook entries in detail to determine whether reasonable suspicion objectively existed.
- Evaluating the stop. We analyzed whether the observations the officer described met the legal threshold the Criminal Code requires before a roadside screening demand.
- Challenging grounds in court. Through cross-examination, we showed that the officer could not clearly articulate how his observations formed reasonable suspicion before the demand.
- Addressing Charter breaches. We argued that without lawful grounds for the roadside screening, police obtained every later breath sample unlawfully, and the court had to exclude them.
Result
The court found that the officer’s evidence lacked the detail needed to establish reasonable suspicion at the time of the roadside demand. It excluded the breathalyzer results under section 24(2) of the Charter.
Without admissible breath evidence, the Crown withdrew the charges. Mr. R left court without a criminal conviction.
Many drivers ask whether they can refuse a breathalyzer; this case shows the other side of that question, where the demand itself failed. The full breakdown of Charter defences is in our guide, and our Toronto impaired driving lawyer page covers how we approach downtown stops.
Every case is different, and past results do not predict future outcomes.