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Numerous witnesses said Suter slurred his words and was unsteady and glassy-eyed in the minutes after the crash, visual cues that could have been caused when he was pulled from his vehicle and assaulted by bystanders, Anderson said. Suter admitted drinking two vodkas with orange juice and part of a beer in the hours leading up to the crash.

When Anderson concluded Suter wasn’t impaired, he chose not to sentence him in the same range as a charge of impaired driving causing death.

Mounsef said Anderson’s conclusion that Suter wasn’t impaired angered him more than the sentence itself.

Photo by Hand Out / THE CANADIAN PRESS

The father, who believes Suter was impaired, said the decision does nothing to deter drivers from withholding a breath sample and depriving police of key evidence in investigations where a driver is suspected of drinking.

“This just sends a clear message to impaired drivers that all they have to do is refuse. Why would any driver that kills anybody ever blow?”

Defence lawyer Dino Bottos said his client was “content” with the sentence and “vindicated” by Anderson’s conclusion he was not impaired. The decision should end the “false narrative” that Suter was drunk, Bottos said.

Crown prosecutor Neil Wiberg previously had argued for a three-year sentence and said Suter’s sentencing hearing testimony was “self-serving” and the court should be left with no doubt his impairment led to Geo’s death.

“There was not one witness that testified he was sober,” Wiberg said. “Were he sober, he would’ve been begging to take a breathalyzer to prove his innocence.”