The accused was charged with operation of a motor vehicle with over 80 mg of alcohol per hundred milliliters of blood following an incident in North Bay, Ontario on December 15, 2017.
A blended trial and Charter application were held.
The defence abandoned its Charter arguments and proceeded solely on the submission that the Crown failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that breath samples were taken as soon as practicable as required by the Criminal Code.
The court found a significant unexplained delay of 58 minutes between arrival at the detachment and the accused being turned over to the breath technician, and a lack of evidence explaining the circumstances of this delay.
The court concluded it could not determine whether the tests were taken as soon as practicable in all circumstances and therefore the statutory presumption could not apply.
The charge was dismissed.
