Can a driver who has been convicted of impaired driving for the past year continue to drive?

In Ross v. The Registrar of Motor Vehicles and the Attorney General for Ontario, 1973 CanLII 176 (SCC), [1975] 1 S.C.R. 5, the court was faced with federal intermittent driving prohibitions on drivers convicted of impaired driving, and provincial laws which completely suspended the driver’s licence of individuals convicted of impaired driving. Although the effect of the provincial suspension prevented the driver from being able to drive intermittently, as permitted by the federal law, the court held that there was no contradiction. The driver could comply with both laws by respecting the stricter one.

The court has continued to follow this principle in a variety of cases. In Robinson v. Countrywide Factors, 1977 CanLII 175 (SCC), [1978] 1 S.C.R. 753, the court held that a provincial law avoiding fraudulent preferences by insolvent debtors could stand in the face of a federal bankruptcy law.