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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Sobering message to drunk drivers
(DALE CUMMINGS)
Provincial court Judge Ray Wyant cannot be described as a renegade judge unsure or contemptuous of the limits to his authority. He has shown himself as measured and thoughtful on the bench. But he is fed up with the fact courts -- prosecutors and judges alike -- have been unable or unwilling to flex sufficient muscle to denounce irresponsible, dangerous behaviour that regularly claims innocent lives on the roads. And so it is the 14-day jail sentence he gave impaired driver Jesse Friesen was both measured and thoughtful.
Sheer dumb luck saved Friesen, 29, from killing himself or others when he drove off Highway 59 and into a ditch one night last summer. His 0.33 blood-alcohol reading, more than four times the legal limit, revealed he did a lot of drinking before leaving his cottage and getting on the road.
While Friesen, who loses his licence for 15 months and is on probation for two years, pleaded guilty and was remorseful, Judge Wyant rightly decided the joint recommendation by the Crown and defence lawyers fell short of appropriate sanction. In his pointed reasons for sentencing Wednesday, the judge excoriated people who choose to put others in danger by drinking and driving.
Friesen was looking for a fine and a year-long driving ban, a standard sentence for first offences. The judge found Friesen himself was not in need of the corrective power of the short, sharp shock a jail sentence delivers. Rather, he said, he was upholding the broader sentencing principles of denunciation and deterrence. The jail term is meant to warn all others who drink to excess and then get behind the wheel of a vehicle.
The jail sentence may well be done before an appeal is launched. Appeal courts have repeatedly reminded judges in lower courts joint recommendations and plea bargains are not to be set aside lightly. Those intimately involved in weighing the evidence, the chances of conviction and getting a criminal case to trial on agreed conditions should not see their negotiations dismissed by whim. Judge Wyant acknowledged as much, but declared it high time to issue a warning.
Judge Wyant appropriately used the loaded-gun analogy to describe such abhorrent behaviour. The Criminal Code permits a maximum of six months for a summary conviction of impaired driving and five years if tried by indictment. In measured fashion, the judge imposed 14 days. It sends a powerful message to drivers, lawyers and judges all.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 12, 2012 A10
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