TORONTO - Ontario's top court says it's illegal to hold a cellphone while driving even if it's not transmitting and no matter how briefly it's in a driver's hand.
The Court of Appeal for Ontario released a pair of decisions Friday ordering two people convicted under the Highway Traffic Act for violating the ban on using cellphones while driving.
In one case, Khojasteh Kazemi argued that she had just picked up her cellphone, which had fallen off the seat to the floor of her car when she stopped at a red light, when a police officer spotted her holding it.
A lower court judge dismissed Kazemi's charge, ruling that there must be some "sustained physical holding" in order to convict, but the Appeal Court overturned that finding.
In the other case, Hugo Pizzurro was caught driving with a cellphone in his hand but argued the Crown couldn't prove it was capable of sending or receiving at the time.
But the Appeal Court concluded the language in the law requiring a capability of sending or receiving applies only to devices other than cellphones as cellphones have that capability built in.
