For example, if a person is accused of having over the legal limit of alcohol in their body, based on the result of an Approved Screening Device, or if that person is charged with refusing to provide a screening device sample, the police will seize the person’s licence and the MTO will suspend that person’s driving privileges for 90 days. A person’s licence may be suspended administratively even without finding of guilt.A common example of this is ‘driving under suspension’ which, if proven in court, results in another six month suspension being tacked on top of any other suspension. This is the case whether or not the Court imposed a driving restriction when sentencing the offender for the offence. A person’s licence may be suspended by the MTO (Ministry of Transportation of Ontario) automatically if they have been found guilty of a certain type of offence.A discretionary suspension is one that says something like “if you are found guilty of X, your licence may be suspended for Y period of time.” A mandatory suspension is one where the law says something like “if you are found guilty of X, your licence shall be suspended for Y period of time”. Such license suspensions may be mandatory or discretionary. A person’s licence may be suspended by a Court (traffic court, aka Provincial Offences Court) for committing certain kinds of offences.Speaking very generally, there are five categories. In Ontario, the word “suspension” appears numerous times in the provincial driving legislation called the “Highway Traffic Act.” There are many forms of suspensions under this provincial law. The word “suspension” does not appear in the Criminal Code of Canada in respect of driving licences. That said, however, these are different terms with different meanings, consequences and implications. Often when a person uses these words, they use them interchangeably and, in many instances, one can convey the proper meaning irrespective of which term is used. Before I can answer this, it is important to understand the difference between a suspension, a prohibition and a disqualification. A question which I often get asked is whether or not driving with a suspended licence is a criminal offence.
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