Here is the quick tip of the day for somebody who is charged with impaired driving by alcohol.If you are representing yourself or even if you have a lawyer, make sure you or your lawyer check the top of the information (i.e. the court document setting out your criminal charge) to make sure that the box at the top of the information that says “impaired driving by substances” is not ticked off. If that box has been mistakenly ticked off by the police and you plead guilty to an impaired driving by alcohol charge, you will unwittingly prevent yourself from qualifying for the Stream A Ignition Interlock Program because the Ministry of Transport will consider that you have plead guilty to impaired driving by a drug. A conviction for impaired driving by a drug does not allow you to qualify for Stream A. So make sure the judge changes that in court before you plead guilty. The judge will make this amendment upon request.
This is a very small issue to take care of, but a lot of people get caught on this in Ontario and it takes a lot of behind the scene work to undo this problem with the Ministry, believe me. So that is the quick tip of the day.
