No need for ‘double punishment’ in mandatory sentence case, Supreme Court rules

OTTAWA –

Canada’s top court says a woman who was barred from driving for almost two years while awaiting sentencing would face a kind of double punishment if she were now handed an additional, mandatory one-year prohibition.

The Supreme Court of Canada ruling comes today in the case of Jennifer Basque, who was charged with operating a motor vehicle with excess blood alcohol concentration in Moncton, N.B., in 2017.

Basque spent the next 21 months, between her initial court appearance and sentencing, under a prohibition that prevented her from driving.

Basque pleaded guilty and a judge levied a $1,000 fine and a mandatory one-year driving prohibition, but took into account the time that had elapsed, meaning she was not subjected to the further ban on driving.

However, the New Brunswick Court of Appeal allowed the Crown’s appeal and varied the judge’s decision to include the mandatory one-year driving prohibition.

In its unanimous ruling today, the Supreme Court says that by the time Basque was sentenced, she had already served the minimum driving prohibition set out in the law.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 30, 2023.