Driving With Suspended License in Ontario – Is it a criminal offence? (2022)
- If you’re driving with a suspended license in Ontario, is it a criminal offence?
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- It’s an important question to ask because a criminal conviction can ruin your life.
- And we get this question all the time at our law firm because people are confused.
- And here’s why there’s confusion.
- If you look up the penalty for driving with a suspended license under Section 53(1) of the Highway Traffic Act of Ontario, you will see that there is a fine for driving with a suspended license.
- That’s not a surprise. It makes sense that you would get a fine on a conviction.
- But, what confuses people is that the penalty for driving under suspension also includes the potential to go to jail for up to 6-months.
- And if you can go to jail, then it’s logical to conclude that driving while suspended is a criminal charge.
- But, that is not true.
- Driving with a suspended license is not a criminal charge even though jail is a potential penalty.
- Yes, it’s confusing. But let me explain the logic.
- First, you need to understand how the government, who wrote the law and included the potential of jail time, thinks about people driving with a suspended license.
- A car weighs about 4,000 pounds. The lawmakers view that car like a weapon on wheels that can cause property damage, cause bodily harm and even kill.
- And, the best way to control who can and cannot drive is to make sure they are properly licensed.
- And if they are not properly licensed, then to impose very strict penalties that will deter people from driving under suspension.
- So the penalty for driving with a suspended license starts with fines and a mandatory 6-month driving ban that starts when you get your license reinstated.
- But if you keep driving, the lawmakers assume that the fines and 6-month driving suspensions are not deterring your behaviour, so they escalate penalties to include jail time.
- The government believes that if you spend time in jail for driving with a suspended license, that experience will be so traumatic that it will deter you from driving if your license is suspended.
- In other words, the only way to make you stop driving while your license is under suspension in Ontario is to put you in jail.
- However, the lawmakers did not want to give you a criminal record because the impact of that criminal conviction would be too painful on your life as compared to what you did.
- So, they added the potential of jail time but without the lifelong impact of giving you a criminal record.
- However, if you keep driving while suspended, even though you have already gone to jail, then the lawmakers assume your danger has escalated to the point that you should be assessed and criminally charged.
