A doctor soon came to the scene, and Dyment was taken to the hospital by a Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officer.

When Dyment woke up, and while still suffering from a concussion from the accident, he told the doctor that he had been drinking and had taken antihistamine tablets.

Police analysis of the blood found that the alcohol level was above the legal limit and so Dyment was charged with being in care or control of a motor vehicle having consumed alcohol in such quantity that the proportion in his blood exceeded 80 milligrams of alcohol in 100 milliliters of blood contrary to section 236 of the Criminal Code.

La Forest, writing concurring reasons, examined the scope of protection provided by section 8.

[3] He found that underlying section 8 is a right to privacy, which he described as a constitutionally protected value, stating that: