10 years
Hybrid offence. Driving while prohibited carries a 10-year maximum sentence, making it serious criminality under IRPA s.36(1).
Getting behind the wheel while a court order says you cannot. What matters at the border is the 10 year ceiling attached to the charge, not the small fine someone may have actually paid. That ceiling alone makes the conviction serious criminality, which catches out people who saw the whole thing as a paperwork problem.
(1) Everyone commits an offence who operates a conveyance while prohibited from doing so (a) by an order made under this Act; or (b) by any other form of legal restriction imposed under any other Act of Parliament or under provincial law in respect of a conviction under this Act or a discharge under section 730. (2) No person commits an offence under subsection (1) arising out of the operation of a motor vehicle if they are registered in an alcohol ignition interlock device program established under the law of the province in which they reside and they comply with the conditions of the program.