Driving is a privilege and not a right. As a result the police have much more authority to stop and question drivers than they do pedestrians.
If the police stop you while you are driving, they are entitled to see your driver’s licence, and your car registration and insurance. Failing to produce these documents is a provincial offence.
If the police suspect that you have been drinking alcohol, they can properly demand that you take a roadside breath test. They can also ask you to do “physical sobriety tests” at the roadside. These tests are meant to check whether alcohol has impaired your ability to drive. If these tests give the police have “reasonable grounds” to believe that your ability to drive is impaired by alcohol or that you have more than the legal limit for alcohol in your blood, they can also demand that you go with them to a police station to do a breathalyzer test.
You do not have the right to speak with a lawyer before taking a roadside test. But you do have the right to speak to a lawyer before doing a breath test at the police station. You should exercise that right and speak to a lawyer; if you do not have a lawyer you can get in touch with the police with give you a list of lawyers who can speak to you by telephone.
Refusing to take a breath test without a reasonable excuse is a criminal offence. If a court decides that you refused a breathalyzer test without a reasonable excuse, you will be given at least the same punishment as you would have gotten for impaired driving.
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