The defendant was charged with exceed 80 (impaired driving) following a roadside breath test.
The Crown sought to admit breath sample results showing a blood alcohol content of 180 mg%.
The defendant challenged the admissibility of the evidence, alleging multiple Charter breaches during his arrest and detention, including unlawful handcuffing before arrest, failure to provide section 10(b) rights, an unlawful pat-down search, and unlawful detention in a police vehicle.
The court found that while the pat-down search was justified on officer safety grounds and the detention in the police vehicle did not constitute a Charter breach, the defendant was unlawfully handcuffed before his arrest.
This serious Charter infringement was found to outweigh the minimal intrusiveness of the breath test itself under the section 24(2) analysis.
The breath sample results were excluded and the charge was dismissed.
