On Monday August 26, Quebec Court Judge Bertrand St-Arnaud handed down an unusual prison sentence, condemning Nathalie Hince, a woman from Vaudreuil-Soulanges, to serve her sentence at home for a third repeat offence of driving under the influence of alcohol. 

Although he accepted the joint suggestion of the prosecutors in the case as to the sentence to be imposed on the accused, the magistrate made no secret of his unease about it. According to the law, a third repeat offence of impaired driving carries a minimum sentence of 120 days in prison and a three-year driving prohibition. However, well aware of the exceptional circumstances of the case, Mr. St-Arnaud approved the joint recommendation of Alexandre Dubé for the defence and Chloé McFarlane for the Crown. 

The events with which Ms. Hince is charged occurred on November 17, 2022, at around 3 a.m., when she was intercepted at the wheel of a car that was not travelling in a straight line on the roadway. According to the approved screening device, a test she took at the police station following her interception, she had 160 mg of alcohol per 100 ml of blood - double the legal limit - less than 2 hours after she stopped driving. 

A third arrest in 14 years 

According to information disclosed in court by Me Dubé, his client has two other similar records. In 14 years, she has been arrested three times for the same offence. 

On her first arrest, in September 2010, Ms. Hince was fined $1,000. Four years later, in 2014, she was arrested for the same reason and also had to answer a hit-and-run charge, which earned her a 30-day jail sentence. 

“At the time of the events, as stipulated in the pre-sentence report, my client was facing several health issues. She was receiving mental health follow-up for a limited personality disorder diagnosed and treated with medication. She had CLSCs related to this condition at the CLSC. She also suffers from fibromyalgia, as well as having had a stroke and micro-strokes caused by a lump on the back of her head. She has an appointment next October with a specialist on this issue. She has had a relapse, and as an alcoholic, the risk of recurrence is always present. But two weeks after the events, she had meetings at Centre Le Virage, in addition to completing, in 2023, a therapy to reduce the risk of recidivism,” summarized Me. Dubé. 

The latter also pointed out that his client welcomes the fact that the Highway Safety Code provides for her vehicle to be fitted with an alcohol ignition interlock device for life because of this third repeat offence. 

 “In 2014, at the time of her second conviction, she had this condition imposed, but the device was removed after some time. This time, she wants to keep it, as she sees it as a good incentive to stay sober. It has to be said that she is the designated driver for her boyfriend, who has brain cancer, has several medical follow-ups and is a single mother. Her boyfriend is currently off work. He is functional, but has short-term memory problems, as the doctors had to remove part of his brain due to the disease. What's more, my client is juggling her family obligations with a full-time job. It would therefore have been too complicated to impose a firm prison sentence on her,” he added.  

Over the next few weeks, Mrs. Hince will also be taking an evening nursing course. “For some of her assets, my client will also be declaring bankruptcy. That way, she won't have the financial pressures she had before, which sometimes led her to relapse. I realize that our joint suggestion is very exceptional in the circumstances, but in my opinion, it's what best applies to this particular case. My client has taken therapeutic steps of her own accord to regain control of her life and get better. She has also just regained custody of her children, aged 15 and 7”, he added.

An eight-month sentence to be served at home  

The sentence suggested by the two prosecutors on the case was eight months' suspended sentence to be served at home. For the first four months, Ms. Hince will be required to remain at home 24 hours a day, except for health reasons or to run errands on Sundays from 10 am to 2 pm. She must respond to calls from her probation officer at all hours of the day and night. 

Thereafter, for the next four months, she must be at home every evening between midnight and 6am. “A one-year probationary follow-up is also suggested following this sentence of house arrest to continue to supervise the accused and minimize her risk of reoffending. In addition, we suggest that she not be allowed to drive any motor vehicle in Canada for a period of four years,” he confirmed.  

Although this suggestion is unusual in the circumstances, it was endorsed by Judge Saint-Arnaud because of the exceptional nature of the case.  “I understand from reading the pre-sentence report that you have had a difficult life punctuated by numerous health problems, including a psychiatric hospitalization at Hôpital du Suroît. I note your rehabilitation efforts, even though your probation officer states in the document that your risk of reoffending is medium. Usually, in such circumstances, i.e. in the case of a third recidivism, a prison sentence awaits the accused. But as your lawyer said, this is a very, very special case. So I'm going to endorse the prosecutors' joint suggestion. But I urge you to stay on the straight and narrow, because if you don't comply with your conditions, you could end up serving your sentence behind bars,” concludes the magistrate, addressing the accused.