It is a considerable relief to know that an absurdity like the summons issued to Mayor Guay could not happen in Canada.

This for two reasons. First, every police officer in Canada is a “constable” and, as such, exercises the same authority as the ancient Lord High Constable in England. This includes what is called “Crown discretion,” the prerogative of the Crown to lay, or not lay, a charge. (It is the police constable who lays a charge in Canada. Crown counsel, the Canadian equivalent of a district attorney, cannot be involved in investigation beyond providing necessary legal advice to police.) Thus, a police constable detaining a person for the purpose of a breath test analysis has the discretion to release that person when the analysis proves, effectively, negative. It would be unreasonable, and open to judicial review, for a constable to fail to exercise that discretion.

The second reason is that Canadian courts have identified a state called “detention.” This is more than a “stop,” but less than arrest.

It carries the same constitutional protections as arrest, but it is not an arrest. And, in Mayor Guay’s kind of situation, that detention would immediately be ended by the .01 breath test reading.

There has to be some limit to its absurdity.

Possibly my home state of Maine might want to look north for some reasonable and useful ideas.

David M. Bulger, Prince Edward Island