An officer at a police check stop does not need a reason to pull you over. Random stops of drivers are lawful in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and since December 2018 an officer holding an approved screening device can demand a breath sample from any driver without suspecting anything at all. What limits the stop is its purpose, not the officer’s grounds.
The rules below are the ones that decide cases. The firm defends impaired driving charges in both provinces, and almost every one of them begins at a stop like this.
A Police Check Stop Needs No Grounds, and the Courts Settled That
Provincial motor vehicle legislation in both provinces lets police stop a driver to check a licence, registration, insurance, the mechanical state of the vehicle and the driver’s sobriety. The Supreme Court of Canada upheld random stopping in the 1980s and again in 1990. A stop with no articulated reason is a detention, but it is a reasonable one when it is made for those driving purposes.
That is why “he had no reason to stop me” is not, on its own, an argument. The question a court asks is what the officer did after the vehicle stopped.
The Stop Is Lawful Only While It Stays About Driving
The power is limited by what it exists for. An officer who stops a car to check sobriety and licensing may ask about those things and look at what is in plain view. Prolonging the detention to investigate something unrelated, without new grounds, takes the officer outside the power.
The line matters because evidence found after the officer stepped outside the purpose can be excluded under section 24(2) of the Charter. Where a drug or weapons charge follows a routine stop, that is usually where the defence starts. The same logic runs through drug charges and weapons charges that begin at the roadside.
An Officer Can Demand Breath Without Suspecting You of Anything
Section 320.27(2) of the Criminal Code allows mandatory alcohol screening. If the officer has an approved screening device with them and is acting in the lawful exercise of their powers, they can demand a breath sample from any driver. No smell of alcohol is required. No admission is required.
The device gives a pass, a warn or a fail. A fail leads to an arrest and a demand for evidentiary breath samples at the detachment. A warn triggers a provincial roadside suspension without any criminal charge.
Refusing the Demand Is Its Own Offence and Is Punished More Heavily
Refusing or failing to comply with a breath demand is an offence under section 320.15. It is prosecuted the same way an impaired driving charge is, and the mandatory minimum fine for refusing is set higher than the minimum for a first failed test.
There is no tactical gain in refusing. A driver who declines the device has committed a complete offence on the spot, and the Crown no longer needs any reading to prove its case. Defending a refusal charge means attacking the demand itself, not the absence of a number.
You Must Identify Yourself and Produce Your Documents
Provincial law requires a driver to produce a licence, the vehicle registration and proof of insurance on request, and to give a name. Refusing those is a provincial offence and gives the officer grounds to keep you there longer.
Hand over the documents. Nothing about producing them helps the Crown prove impairment.
You Do Not Have to Answer Where You Were or What You Drank
The right to silence covers the questions that follow. “Have you had anything to drink tonight” is asked because the answer is admissible, and “two beers” is quoted back in the officer’s notes as an admission of consumption.
You can decline politely. Saying nothing is not obstruction and it is not evidence of guilt. What you say instead can supply the reasonable suspicion the officer otherwise lacked.
The Right to Counsel Is Suspended at the Roadside and Returns at the Station
At the roadside screening stage the right to counsel under section 10(b) is limited. You are not entitled to call a lawyer before blowing into the screening device, and the courts have accepted that limit because screening has to happen immediately.
Once you are arrested, the position reverses. The officer must tell you about your right to counsel, must give you a real chance to use it, and must stop questioning until you have. Delay or interference at that stage is one of the most common reasons breath readings are excluded. The right to counsel chapter of the criminal process guide sets out what the officer owes you.
Where the Check Stop Is Set Up Is Not a Defence
Drivers often complain that a roadblock sits somewhere unsafe or was timed strangely. Where police set up is an operational decision and no court will throw out a charge because a driver thought the location was poorly chosen.
What can matter is how the stop was conducted. A driver held far longer than the check required, questioned about matters unconnected to driving, or searched without grounds has an argument about the manner of the detention rather than its location.
What the Defence Examines After an Arrest at a Check Stop
The file is built out of timing. When was the vehicle stopped, when was the screening demand made, when was the device actually used, when was the arrest, when was the right to counsel given, when were the evidentiary samples taken.
Each of those intervals has a rule attached to it, and the Crown has to satisfy every one. A demand made before the officer had the device in hand, a delay between the demand and the test that is never explained, or a call to counsel that never happened will each undo the readings. Read more about how the firm handles DUI charges, or what we can do once a charge is laid.
FAQ
Can I Refuse to Roll Down My Window at a Check Stop?
No. The officer is exercising a lawful stopping power and needs to see and speak to the driver. Refusing supplies grounds for further investigation and can lead to arrest for obstruction.
Does a Warn Range Reading Give Me a Criminal Record?
No. A warn range result leads to a provincial roadside suspension. It is an administrative consequence, imposed without a court, and it leaves no criminal record.
Can Police Search My Car Because They Stopped Me?
Not without grounds. The stopping power authorises the stop and a look at what is in plain view. A search needs its own legal basis, such as a lawful arrest or reasonable grounds to believe there is contraband inside.
What If I Was Parked and Not Driving?
Care or control of a vehicle is enough for an impaired driving charge, and a driver asleep in a running car has been convicted many times. The screening power applies to a person who is operating a conveyance or who has care or control of one.