It’s two in the morning outside a bar on 17th Avenue, and you climb into your car to sleep off a few too many drinks before heading home. Your key never left your pocket, and you never even started the engine to roll down the windows or turn on the heat. The next thing you remember is a flashlight hitting the window and an officer asking if you have your keys. You pulled the key out of your pocket, but now you’re standing on the sidewalk answering questions like you did something wrong just for trying to be responsible. Alan Pearse understands how unfair this moment feels, and he steps in to help you understand the charge you face and what comes next.
What Does Care and Control Mean in an Impaired Driving (DUI) Case?
Care and control describes a legal situation in which a person faces an impaired driving charge based on being in a position to operate a vehicle, even without actually driving it. Under the Criminal Code of Canada, the term “operate” covers both driving a vehicle and having care or control of it while impaired. That means a person asleep in the driver’s seat, with the keys within reach, may face the same impaired driving charge as someone weaving down Macleod Trail.
How Do Prosecutors Prove Care and Control?
Prosecutors don’t need to show that a car was moving to secure a conviction. The law creates a legal shortcut: if the Crown proves that a person occupied the seat a driver would normally use, that person is presumed to have been operating the vehicle, unless they can show that they didn’t sit there to put the car in motion. This presumption shifts the burden to you to establish why you occupied the driver’s seat and explain your actions and intentions to a Calgary court.
What Facts Do Courts Consider?
Judges weigh the full picture before deciding whether a person had care or control of a vehicle. Common factors include:
- Where the person was seated and whether the keys were in the ignition or nearby;
- Whether the engine was running or the person had started it at any point;
- What the person says about their plans, such as sleeping off alcohol before driving later;
- Whether the vehicle’s location and condition suggest any real possibility that it could move; and
- How much time passed between when the person entered the vehicle and when the police arrived.
No single factor decides a case on its own. A Calgary court considers all the circumstances together, and small details can shift the outcome one way or the other.
Why Can People Face an Impaired Driving Charge Based on Care and Control?
Many people facing an impaired driving charge never intended to drive at all. They made the safer choice: remaining in a parked vehicle, turning off the engine, and waiting out the effects of alcohol before getting back on the road. Ironically, that decision can still lead to an impaired driving charge, because a court may find that the person had care or control even without proof that they intended to drive. This catches many Calgary residents off guard, since they believe that staying off the road protects them from legal trouble.
Does It Matter Where the Vehicle Was Parked?
Location plays a role, but it doesn’t automatically clear someone of a charge. A vehicle parked in a busy lot along Stephen Avenue sits in a different context than one parked in a private driveway in Mahogany. Courts consider whether the vehicle’s position created any realistic chance it could start moving and cause harm, whether that’s rolling into traffic or being started up on a whim.
What Role Does Intent Play?
Intent can be important in care and control cases, since no actual driving occurred. A person who moved to the back seat, handed their keys to a sober friend, or called a cab before falling asleep builds a stronger case that they never intended to drive. Documenting these choices, or having witnesses who can confirm them, often becomes central to a defence strategy.
What Penalties Come with a Conviction in Alberta?
An impaired operation conviction based on care and control carries the same criminal record and federal penalties as a conviction involving actual driving. Beyond the criminal court process, Alberta layers on its own administrative consequences the moment police suspect impairment.
Under the province’s immediate roadside sanctions, a driver testing at 0.08 or higher, or who fails or refuses testing, faces a 90-day licence suspension on the spot, along with vehicle seizure and an administrative penalty of $1,000 plus a victim fine surcharge for a first offence.
These provincial sanctions apply immediately, often well before a criminal case ever reaches a Calgary courtroom, and they apply whether the charge involves actual driving or care and control.
Why Choose Alan Pearse When Care and Control Lead to an Impaired Driving Charge in Calgary?
Mr. Pearse has spent more than 25 years focused only on impaired driving cases, and that narrow focus is what sets his practice apart in Calgary. He has represented clients across Canada, and can appear in every province and territory except Quebec, handling more than 2,000 impaired driving cases along the way.
He wrote A Guide to Breathalyzer Certificates in Canada, a resource that reflects how closely he tracks the science and procedure behind every reading police rely on in a care and control case. He also writes the Alan Pearse Impaired Driving Newsletter, sharing his own analysis of changes in the law with other lawyers and the public.
Calgary clients reach him directly, day or night, because impaired driving arrests do not wait for office hours.
Charged Doesn’t Mean Convicted. Let’s Talk About Your Options
A charge based on where you sat and what you intended deserves a strong defence. Reach out to discuss your situation today and determine what options exist for challenging the case against you. A free consultation gives you a clear picture of what comes next, without any pressure to decide on the spot.