Although his blood alcohol level was just slightly over the legal limit, the prosecutor would not reduce the charge to
simple careless driving, which the client he agreed he was guilty of.
From at least the 1940s, the Court has distinguished between, on the one hand,
simple negligence that is required to establish civil liability or guilt of provincial
careless driving offences and, on the other hand, the significantly greater fault required for the criminal offence of dangerous
driving (American Automobile Ins.