Justice committee  I don't think a preamble is going to save the day. To say you can randomly stop someone and randomly demand that they provide a sample of their breath or other bodily substance without reasonable suspicion or reasonable probable grounds, when there is legislation in place already

Justice committee  With the greatest respect, I think you made the best submissions from the defence standpoint that could possibly be made. If it's totally random, without any basis, sir, that is what would make it an unreasonable search and seizure.

Justice committee  Well, a judge's job is to determine whether someone has been proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. I don't think any preamble telling the judge there's carnage on the highway will in any way—nor should it—affect a judge's decision. If he thinks someone is innocent or there's r

Justice committee  I would say they're acquitted quite often on charter grounds—either unreasonable delay, or issues involving unreasonable search and seizure, or issues involving rights to counsel. Quite often they're acquitted on a number of technical defences. The Criminal Code is very technical

Justice committee  Most of the mistakes that are made are made when the officer testifies. He forgets to say something he ought to have said, or he says something he ought not to have said. For example, there are two breath demands under the Criminal Code. There's a demand for a roadside breath tes

Justice committee  I think the police generally get it right. They read the right thing, for example, as “right to counsel”. Of course, an accused person is entitled to exercise that right to counsel, and there are a great number of issues and disputes as to whether the police effectively allowed s

Justice committee  In Ontario, if you lose your licence, administratively it automatically comes back. There's no application; it's automatic.

Justice committee  As Mr. Di Luca said, we don't think it would at all survive a charter challenge, because there is now not only an entirely random stopping of vehicles but an entirely random seizure of someone's breath.

Justice committee  All right. I'll briefly talk about random breath testing. I'm not an expert on the Constitution, but I think there'd be great difficulties from a constitutional perspective in having random breath testing. I don't think we can forget about what the requirement is for the police

Justice committee  I can't tell you about the numbers or percentages, as Mr. Di Luca did, but what I can tell you, as a lawyer who appears almost daily in the Ontario Court of Justice, is that in Ontario, at least, our courtrooms are in crisis. Every day, charges are being stayed on the basis of un

Justice committee  I had the honour of appearing before this honourable committee in June of 2007 with regard to Bill C-2 amendments. Perhaps I'm surprised I've been invited back. At that time I cautioned you about what would occur if those amendments were passed. I told you the white flag would no

Justice committee  They're legitimate arguments that happen all the time, because cost is not the issue. For example, someone was talking about the increase of the penalty from $600 to $1,000, but $400 is not going to do a thing. I don't want to get into the exact particulars, but the legal fees

Justice committee  I can't tell you what the exact percentage is in Ontario. It does happen. There's certainly a crown policy manual that discourages it. It can only be done in certain situations with the approval of either the acting crown attorney for the jurisdiction or the deputy crown attorney

Justice committee  I can say that the vast majority of defences of these cases are not legal aid funded at all. I can tell you, and Mr. Burstein can probably confirm, I'm a wonderful specific deterrent against my client committing these types of offences ever again. I make sure they pay for it in s

Justice committee  I've said it before. The greater you make the penalties the more litigation you create. Certainly I can't complain from that standpoint. That's not why I'm here. I can comment on the drugs. Paul obviously addressed it more than I did. If the police pull someone over--and let's m