Driving Under the Influence of Canada: Possession of Strange, Foreign Driver's License Sends Woman to Georgia Slammer

by Steph Willems

Updated: March 24th, 2023 Published: May 7th, 2018

driving under the influence of canada possession of strange foreign driver s

Any number of unpleasant things can befall a motorist after an unexpected, police-initiated roadside stop. Asset seizure being just one of the dangers. Of course, suspected drug use can also ruin your day, as well as your life.

For an Ontario woman pulled over for speeding on the I-75 in Cook County, Georgia, the item that landed her in jail was exactly what the officer asked for: a driver’s license. Sorry, wrong country, she was told.

According to CBC, the 27-year-old woman’s legal saga started in April. While driving back to Tennessee through Georgia, Emily Nield, who recently completed a master’s degree in geology in the Volunteer State, was pulled over for doing 87 mph in a 70 zone.

While this type of encounter would normally leave a motorist fuming over a pricey ticket, Nield soon found herself in handcuffs. When handed an Ontario driver’s license, the officer was in no mood to recognize Georgia law, which states that non-U.S. residents are allowed to drive with a valid license from their country of origin.

“She kept saying, ‘No, Canadian licences are not accepted,'” Nield told CBC. “I was flabbergasted. I just kept saying this can’t be right — a Canadian licence is always valid.”

Foreign motorists might find themselves asked to produce identification — like a passport — to prove that everything’s on the up and up. That’s exactly what the officer asked Nield, who claims to have had a copy of her passport, birth certificate, and Nexus card on her phone. However, the officer wanted hard copies.

“When I failed to produce it, she reached through the window of my car and she put handcuffs on me,” said Nield. “She told me that I have just been arrested for driving without a licence and that I needed to go to jail.”

And that’s exactly where she ended up. However, before having her photo and prints taken (and told that she was firmly “in the system” now), she fired off a Snapchat video to her friends, appealing for help. Maybe social media does have its uses. A friend tracked Nield down in Adel, Georgia, and contacted the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, after which Nield was allowed a phone call. She claims her requests for a call with the Canadian Consulate or her parents went unanswered.

Nield eventually put up her own bail via a debit card ($880 USD), thus avoiding the unpleasant experience of waiting in jail until her June 12th court appearance rolled around. Getting her car out of impound cost $200. Still, it’s wasn’t the financial penalties that worried Nield.

“I just kept thinking this would ruin me,” Nield told CBC. “Any job application you have to check a box. Are you a criminal? Have you ever been convicted or arrested for anything?”

Luckily for Nield, a friend’s father worked as a lawyer in Virginia. With the help of the consulate, the lawyer leaned on local authorities, and three days later the charge was off the books. However, it’s not hard to imagine a more drawn out ordeal had this been someone without useful connections and know-how.

Despite her arrest no longer being in the system, Nield remains disturbed by what happened. The Cook County probate court solicitor, Matthew Bennett, said Canadians and other non-U.S. drivers should make sure to carry their identification while plying American roadways, but that’s not what landed Nield in jail. Nield said it wouldn’t have mattered if she was carrying the original documents, as the officer wasn’t prepared to recognize any Canadian license as legal. (Bad news for the thousands of snowbirds who drive south each winter in search of heat.)

For that, she’d like to see an apology — if not a formal reprimand for the arresting officer.

[Image: Sue Smith/Shutterstock.com]

#Georgia #LawAndOrder #LawEnforcement #RoadsideStops

Steph Willems

More by Steph Willems

Comments

Join the conversation

3 of 141 comments

Johnds on Mar 26, 2023

Years ago I pulled over a vehicle from either Manitoba or Ontario in North Dakota for speeding. The license plates and drivers license did not come up on my dispatchers computer. The only option was to call their government. Being that it was 2 am, that wasn’t possible so they were given a warning.

Like Reply
- Sayahh on Mar 26, 2023
  
  Does your computer system allow for notes on plates that do not come up in case the same motorist gets pulled over again for infractions?
  
  Like
Kendahl on Mar 27, 2023

I might believe that, on a back road in a rural county, one might run into a cop who doesn't know the law he is paid to enforce. However, I-75 is the main route for snowbirds, of whom a sizeable fraction are Canadian, commuting to and from Florida. It was the cop's responsibility to know that Florida honors foreign licenses. Nield should have hired a lawyer to rub that in.

Like Reply

Recent Comments

Kmars2009 I rented one last fall while visiting Ohio. Not a bad car...but not a great car either. I think it needs a new version. But CUVs are King... unfortunately!
Ajla Remember when Cadillac introduced an entirely new V8 and proceeded to install it in only 800 cars before cancelling everything?
Bouzouki Cadillac (aka GM!!) made so many mistakes over the past 40 years, right up to today, one could make a MBA course of it. Others have alluded to them, there is not enough room for me to recite them in a flowing, cohesive manner.Cadillac today is literally a tarted-up Chevrolet. They are nice cars, and the "aura" of the Cadillac name still works on several (mostly female) consumers who are not car enthusiasts.The CT4 and CT5 offer superlative ride and handling, and even performance--but, it is wrapped in sheet metal that (at least I think) looks awful, with (still) sub-par interiors. They are niche cars. They are the last gasp of the Alpha platform--which I have been told by people close to it, was meant to be a Pontiac "BMW 3-series". The bankruptcy killed Pontiac, but the Alpha had been mostly engineered, so it was "Cadillac-ized" with the new "edgy" CTS styling.Most Cadillacs sold are crossovers. The most profitable "Cadillac" is the Escalade (note that GM never jack up the name on THAT!).The question posed here is rather irrelevant. NO ONE has "a blank check", because GM (any company or corporation) does not have bottomless resources.Better styling, and superlative "performance" (by that, I mean being among the best in noise, harshness, handling, performance, reliablity, quality) would cost a lot of money.Post-bankruptcy GM actually tried. No one here mentioned GM's effort to do just that: the "Omega" platform, aka CT6.The (horribly misnamed) CT6 was actually a credible Mercedes/Lexus competitor. I'm sure it cost GM a fortune to develop (the platform was unique, not shared with any other car. The top-of-the-line ORIGINAL Blackwing V8 was also unique, expensive, and ultimately...very few were sold. All of this is a LOT of money).I used to know the sales numbers, and my sense was the CT6 sold about HALF the units GM projected. More importantly, it sold about half to two thirds the volume of the S-Class (which cost a lot more in 201x)Many of your fixed cost are predicated on volume. One way to improve your business case (if the right people want to get the Green Light) is to inflate your projected volumes. This lowers the unit cost for seats, mufflers, control arms, etc, and makes the vehicle more profitable--on paper.Suppliers tool up to make the number of parts the carmaker projects. However, if the volume is less than expected, the automaker has to make up the difference.So, unfortunately, not only was the CT6 an expensive car to build, but Cadillac's weak "brand equity" limited how much GM could charge (and these were still pricey cars in 2016-18, a "base" car was ).Other than the name, the "Omega" could have marked the starting point for Cadillac to once again be the standard of the world. Other than the awful name (Fleetwood, Elegante, Paramount, even ParAMOUR would be better), and offering the basest car with a FOUR cylinder turbo on the base car (incredibly moronic!), it was very good car and a CREDIBLE Mercedes S-Class/Lexus LS400 alternative. While I cannot know if the novel aluminum body was worth the cost (very expensive and complex to build), the bragging rights were legit--a LARGE car that was lighter, but had good body rigidity. No surprise, the interior was not the best, but the gap with the big boys was as close as GM has done in the luxury sphere.Mary Barra decided that profits today and tomorrow were more important than gambling on profits in 2025 and later. Having sunk a TON of money, and even done a mid-cycle enhancement, complete with the new Blackwing engine (which copied BMW with the twin turbos nestled in the "V"!), in fall 2018 GM announced it was discontinuing the car, and closing the assembly plant it was built in. (And so you know, building different platforms on the same line is very challenging and considerably less efficient in terms of capital and labor costs than the same platform, or better yet, the same model).So now, GM is anticipating that, as the car market "goes electric" (if you can call it that--more like the Federal Government and EU and even China PUSHING electric cars), they can make electric Cadillacs that are "prestige". The Cadillac Celestique is the opening salvo--$340,000. We will see how it works out.
Lynn Joiner Lynn JoinerJust put 2,000 miles on a Chevy Malibu rental from Budget, touring around AZ, UT, CO for a month. Ran fine, no problems at all, little 1.7L 4-cylinder just sipped fuel, and the trunk held our large suitcases easily. Yeah, I hated looking up at all the huge FWD trucks blowing by, but the Malibu easily kept up on the 80 mph Interstate in Utah. I expect a new one would be about a third the cost of the big guys. It won't tow your horse trailer, but it'll get you to the store. Why kill it?
Lynn Joiner Just put 2,000 miles on a Chevy Malibu rental from Budget, touring around AZ, UT, CO for a month. Ran fine, no problems at all, little 1.7L 4-cylinder just sipped fuel, and the trunk held our large suitcases easily. Yeah, I hated looking up at all the huge FWD trucks blowing by, but the Malibu easily kept up on the 80 mph Interstate in Utah. I expect a new one would be about a third the cost of the big guys. It won't tow your horse trailer, but it'll get you to the store. Why kill it?