Continuity: Whiteboard or blackboard method

Tip 36: Some police detachments have been known to write the manufacturer name, lot number, name/badge of solution change officer, date/time of change and other information on a whiteboard or blackboard. The whiteboard can easily be erased, altered, or amended by any officer using the breath room.

This image was obtained as the result of a defence photographer having access to the breath room in R. v. D. at Brampton. The matter was eventually resolved under the Highway Traffic Act. This case is a good example of why photography of the breath room by an independent professional photographer is essential to full answer and defence. The existence of this image, even though the photography was long after the subject tests, tells us a lot about lack of continuity control at the detachment.

Use of this method assumes that if there is an unscheduled change (e.g. a trip to to the hospital), the intervening qualified technician who makes the unscheduled change will attend the breath room and change the whiteboard.

In an earlier Intoxilyzer 5000C case involving the same detachment, a qualified technician acknowledged the existence of this whiteboard. He also admitted that there were two versions of the Alcohol Standard Log. The Court hinted strongly to the Crown and the Crown withdrew the over 80.

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