Criminal Code

Marginal note:Punishment

• 255 (1) Every one who commits an offence under section 253 or 254 is guilty of an indictable offence or an offence punishable on summary conviction and is liable,

  • (a) whether the offence is prosecuted by indictment or punishable on summary conviction, to the following minimum punishment, namely,

    • (i) for a first offence, to a fine of not less than six hundred dollars,

    • (ii) for a second offence, to imprisonment for not less than fourteen days, and

    • (iii) for each subsequent offence, to imprisonment for not less than ninety days;

  • (b) where the offence is prosecuted by indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years; and

  • (c) where the offence is punishable on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months.

• Marginal note:Impaired driving causing bodily harm

  (2) Every one who commits an offence under paragraph 253(a) and thereby causes bodily harm to any other person is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years.

• Marginal note:Impaired driving causing death

  (3) Every one who commits an offence under paragraph 253(a) and thereby causes the death of any other person is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for life.

• Marginal note:Previous convictions

  (4) Where a person is convicted of an offence committed under paragraph 253(a) or (b) or subsection 254(5), that person shall, for the purposes of this Act, be deemed to be convicted for a second or subsequent offence, as the case may be, if the person has previously been convicted of

  • (a) an offence committed under any of those provisions;

  • (b) an offence under subsection (2) or (3); or

  • (c) an offence under section 250, 251, 252, 253, 259 or 260 or subsection 258(4) of this Act as this Act read immediately before the coming into force of this subsection.

• Marginal note:Conditional discharge

  Footnote ^*(5) Notwithstanding subsection 730(1), a court may, instead of convicting a person of an offence committed under section 253, after hearing medical or other evidence, if it considers that the person is in need of curative treatment in relation to his consumption of alcohol or drugs and that it would not be contrary to the public interest, by order direct that the person be discharged under section 730 on the conditions prescribed in a probation order, including a condition respecting the person’s attendance for curative treatment in relation to that consumption of alcohol or drugs.

  • Return to footnote ^*[Note: In force in the provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, Saskatchewan and Alberta and in the Yukon Territory, the Northwest Territories and the Nunavut Territory, see SI/85-211 and SI/88-24.]