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Good point. I agree with you completely.

I cannot believe that Shanahan’s Charter challenge was rejected. The effect of the decision is that people who use motorized wheelchairs (including those that have no choice, because they are quadriplegic) cannot get drunk anywhere. As counsel for Mr. Shanahan pointed out, they can’t even legally do it in the privacy of their own home!

Part of the problem is that Shanahan was not confined to a wheelchair. He was at least somewhat mobile and able to travel short distances on foot (at para 17):

The evidence does establish that he is not confined to a wheelchair and is capable of walking 100 to 150 metres at a time. Clearly, he can consume all the alcohol he wishes in the privacy of his home or for short distances outside without having to resort to a personal mobility device.

The judge was compelled to look at the particular facts of this particular case and to determine whether the accused’s section 15 rights were being violated. He concluded that they were not. The outcome might have been different if Mr. Shanahan was a quadriplegic and had no choice but to use a motorized wheelchair for mobility.

There surely should be some prohibition on wheelchair-bound people getting so drunk that they swerve from curb to curb on a major street. Such behaviour is potential harmful or fatal (most likely to the guy in the wheelchair.)

But there is no way that a blanket criminal prohibition on all drinking in wheelchairs, which is clearly discriminatory in its application, would survive after a section 1 analysis. In particular, I think it would at least fail the proportionality branch of the Oakes test.

This case was wrongly decided and I am quite sure that Shanahan would win on appeal.

Maybe you shouldnt be able to drink and drive a motorized wheelchair but the reason that survives a Charter challenge shouldnt be that getting drunk is somehow undignified.

So long as it’s not a moped, it would appear that your drunken bike ride would not attract sanctions under the Criminal Code.

That does not mean that you’d get away scot-free. You’d probably be violating other laws.

As just one example, many provinces have laws against being drunk in public.

Ontario’s Liquor Licence Act, R.S.O. 1990, c.L19, s.31(4) makes it an offence to “be intoxicated in a public place.”

Furthermore, s.5(5) allows the police to arrest you without warrant if, in their opinion, it is necessary to do so for your safety. Therefore, depending on how badly you’re riding the bike while drunk, you might get arrested on the spot.