C. Diana

The Commissioner of the OPP applied for certiorari to quash a warrant of committal that ordered an offender to serve an intermittent sentence at the Pikangikum OPP detachment.

The Superior Court of Justice granted the application, finding that the sentencing judge erred in law on the face of the record.

The court held that under the Ministry of Correctional Services Act, sentences of imprisonment must be served in a correctional institution, and under the Criminal Code, intermittent sentences require appropriate accommodation, which a temporary police lock-up facility does not provide.

The appellant police officer appealed a trial decision finding him liable for battery and awarding general and punitive damages to the respondent driver following a traffic stop.

The Divisional Court upheld the finding of battery and the award of general damages, concluding that the officer's push, combined with verbal abuse, constituted offensive contact and was not protected by section 25 of the Criminal Code.

However, the court set aside the punitive damages award, finding that the officer's conduct, while inappropriate, was a spontaneous single event that did not warrant punitive damages.