Welcome to “Cases That Should Have Gone to the Supreme Court of Canada, But Didn’t!”
In this episode, Kyla Lee from Acumen Law Corporation discusses a contract dispute in the energy sector where one party argued that the shared intentions during negotiation should override the written terms of the agreement. The court disagreed, holding that even if both parties had a different understanding during negotiation, the plain language of the contract governed. The Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear the appeal—missing an important opportunity to revisit how intention interacts with written terms in modern contract law.
This week, Kyla and Paul explore R. v. Klemp, where a breath-test certificate was ruled inadmissible because it was only shown, not given, to the accused, and what that means for due process. They also break down Ottawa’s new “tough on crime” agenda and end with a skeleton supervisor for Halloween.
This week on Weird and Wacky Wednesdays: When the Booze is Busted
This week on Weird and Wacky Wednesdays we have four legal stories from around the world reminding us there are always people try to skirt the system. What you may not know about me is that I am one of the owners of a distillery. While B.C. is in the middle of a liquor shortage due to government union job action, I thought it was important to remind people that you are not permitted to make or sell spirits without a license and all that goes with it. The only way to purchase spirits is from private liquor stores or directly from a distillery like ours at Deep Blue Distilleries. Vodka has been flying off the shelves these past few weeks. Inevitably someone will see this as an opportunity to make and sell illegal alcohol but I’m warning you now, bootleggers always get caught.
The Fake Label Factory – Athens, Greece
Greek police smashed a full-blown counterfeit alcohol ring earlier this year. Seventeen people were arrested and more than 2,000 litres of unlawful booze seized, along with thousands of fake labels, empty bottles, and firearms. The gang had everything set up to make their fakes look like the real deal.
The Backyard Brewery – Thane, India
In Ambernath, outside Mumbai, crime branch officers raided an illegal distillery that looked like something out of a movie set. A 24-year-old man was detained, and authorities seized 105 litres of liquor, nearly 900 litres of fermenting wash, and literally tonnes of raw material.
The Eatery Front – Kharar, India
In Mohali district, the police discovered that one local restaurant wasn’t just serving food. The owner had turned his eatery into a cover for illegal booze sales, stocking a wide selection of liquor and beer to sell out the back. The haul included 67 bottles of spirits, 112 beer bottles, 40 cans, and 35 ready-to-drink nips. A dinner special it wasn’t.
The After-Hours Club – Vancouver, Canada
Closer to home, police recently raided an unlicensed after-hours nightclub in Vancouver’s Davie Village, seizing liquor and other contraband. The B.C. government has gone so far as to target the owner’s home for forfeiture. It’s a stark reminder that in this province, getting caught selling outside the system comes with heavy consequences.
The Takeaway
In B.C., you don’t need to sneak around to buy spirits. But you may need to line up at a private store or stop by a distillery. At Deep Blue Distilleries, we sell superior vodka, legally, and by the case. When the shelves are empty elsewhere, it’s the perfect time to pour on the Charm or pick up a bottle of Fighter.
Kyla Lee has been named Canadian Legal Businesswoman of the Year 2025 at the Global Business Awards, hosted by Corporate Vision Magazine.
The Global Business Awards is an international program that recognises companies and individuals who are contributing to progress in their industries. Now in its ninth year, the awards have become known for celebrating both large and small organisations that demonstrate leadership, innovation, and a commitment to their field.
If you’ve been pulled over for a DUI or impaired driving investigation, one question you might be wondering is whether circular breathing can help you avoid failing a breathalyzer test.
Circular breathing is a technique commonly used by musicians to create a continuous airflow while playing wind instruments, but can it help beat a breathalyzer?
This week, we unpack the surge in road-rage cases, why Canada doesn’t need a bespoke “road-rage law,” and the legal flaws in the proposed “Xavier’s Law” that would suspend licences after any fatal crash. We close with a Florida cautionary tale about how small misconduct can snowball fast.
Being involved in a motor vehicle accident is stressful enough—disputing who is at fault can make it even more overwhelming. In British Columbia, ICBC (Insurance Corporation of British Columbia) is the public auto insurer responsible for determining liability in crashes. If you disagree with their decision, you do have options. This article outlines the process for disputing accident liability with ICBC and what to expect along the way.
This week on Weird and Wacky Wednesdays: Cartwheels, Reverse Gears, and Road Rage
This week on Weird and Wacky Wednesdays we look at three cases where driving mixed badly with theatrics, mechanical excuses, and misplaced fury. None of them end in applause.
It has now been fifteen years since British Columbia introduced the Immediate Roadside Prohibition (IRP) scheme. When it was rolled out in 2010, the government promised dramatic reductions in impaired driving deaths and injuries. We were told that fast, automatic penalties would save lives, scare drivers straight, and achieve results the criminal courts never could. Fifteen years on, the numbers tell a very different story.
A Record of Empty Promises
Despite the province’s self-congratulatory press releases and dashboards, road-safety statistics over the last decade and a half show no meaningful, sustained decline in fatalities or serious injuries attributable to impaired driving. Year to year, the numbers wobble slightly up or down, but there is no clear trend that can be credited to the IRP regime. The much-touted early “drop” in collisions was a short-term blip, not a permanent transformation. The province continues to claim success by cherry-picking time frames or using vague “lives saved” models, but when you look at the raw figures over the last 15 years, road deaths and injuries remain stubbornly flat. If this were a business case, the shareholders would be asking hard questions about the return on investment.
The Real Reasons Roads Are Safer
Where there have been modest improvements in road safety, they are more plausibly explained by factors that have nothing to do with IRPs: Vehicle safety advancements have played a major role. Modern cars are dramatically safer than those on the road in 2010. Advanced driver-assistance systems, electronic stability control, and better crash engineering all save lives regardless of who is behind the wheel. Our attitudes as a society about impaired driving and dangerous driving have also shifted. Social norms have shifted. Ride-sharing services, designated drivers, and widespread public messaging mean fewer people treat drunk driving as acceptable, even without the threat of an IRP. Sober curious and alcohol-free individuals are also making their mark on the statistics related to alcohol-impaired driving. Younger people consume less alcohol than previous generations. This demographic shift reduces impaired driving risk independent of roadside law. Let’s not forget that older people also play a role in changing the statistical incidence of impaired driving, injury accidents, and deaths. Older drivers, who now make up a larger share of the population, are less likely to drink and drive in the first place. Paradoxically, police now devote fewer resources to investigating collisions, which can reduce recorded numbers of impaired-related deaths or injuries without improving actual safety. This is in part due to the police being understaffed and under-resourced, as well as decisions made by provincial governments in British Columbia. The government has directed police not to attend collisions unless there is $10,000 of damage or more, a death or an injury, or a potential that somebody is intoxicated. None of these trends owe anything to a 15-year-old administrative penalty system. They are broader social and technological developments that would have occurred whether or not the IRP scheme existed.
Rights Sacrificed for Nothing
What makes this failure so galling is the constitutional cost. The IRP model allows police officers to impose immediate prohibitions, vehicle impoundments, and thousands of dollars in fines based on a roadside screening device and minimal paperwork. There is no presumption of innocence. No right to a full trial. Limited disclosure. Tight deadlines. For fifteen years, British Columbians have been told to accept this erosion of civil liberties because it “saves lives.” If the promised life-saving benefits are not materializing, then what exactly are we trading our rights for?
A Scheme in Search of a Justification
The government continues to defend IRPs as if the debate were over, but the evidence is thin. We have a system that punishes first and asks questions later, generates significant revenue through fees and penalties, and shifts the burden of proof onto ordinary citizens while insulating police and the state from meaningful accountability. The only consistent winners are the provincial treasury and the bureaucracy that administers the program.
Time for an Honest Reckoning
After fifteen years, it is clear that the Immediate Roadside Prohibition regime has not delivered the public-safety revolution its architects promised. Roads are no safer today because of IRPs than they would have been through a combination of safer vehicles, changing drinking habits, and demographic trends. If the goal is truly to reduce deaths and injuries, we should be investing in evidence-based measures—better road design, expanded public transit, mandatory collision-avoidance technology—rather than doubling down on a system that tramples due process for the sake of political optics. The IRP scheme was supposed to be bold and innovative. Instead, it has become a cautionary tale: a harsh, rights-limiting program that delivered little more than headlines and a steady stream of administrative penalties. Fifteen years later, it is time to stop congratulating ourselves and start asking whether this was ever worth the cost.
Welcome to “Cases That Should Have Gone to the Supreme Court of Canada, But Didn’t!”
In this episode, Kyla Lee from Acumen Law Corporation discusses the case of Angela Davidson, an Indigenous woman and former deputy leader of the Green Party, who was arrested twelve times during protests against development projects in British Columbia. After pleading guilty to breaching court orders, Davidson argued that her actions as a land defender should be viewed through the lens of her Indigenous identity—and that her obligation to the land should mitigate her sentence. The court disagreed. Leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada was denied, leaving unresolved how Indigenous legal perspectives and obligations to land should be treated in sentencing.
