Supreme Court tosses driving prohibition against Saskatchewan man in fatal crash

OTTAWA — Canada’s top court has struck down a driving prohibition handed to a Saskatchewan man convicted in a fatal highway crash.

Braydon Wolfe was driving on the wrong side of a divided highway near Langham, Sask., when he crashed head-on into another vehicle, killing two people and seriously injuring another in 2017.

The trial judge sentenced him to six years in prison and a 10-year driving prohibition for criminal negligence causing death and criminal negligence causing bodily harm.

The Saskatchewan Court of Appeal upheld the sentence and maintained the driving prohibition, and Wolfe took the challenge on the driving ban to the Supreme Court of Canada.

A majority of Supreme Court justices write in the decision that the driving prohibition was not an available sentence for criminal negligence under 2018 federal legislation that amended driving offences under the Criminal Code.

Dissenting judges said it creates an “absurd consequence” when a punishment is not available for a serious crime like criminal negligence but is for lesser ones listed in the legislation.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 18, 2024.