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According to the Macquarie Dictionary
the usual meaning of "cancel" is to
make void or to annul, while "suspend" means to cause something to cease for
a time from operation or effect. Thus the ambiguity is whether "cancel" can
include a temporary annulment as there is with suspension, or whether it is
confined to permanent annulment.
Reasons
As pointed out above, the literal meaning of "cancel" is to annul or to avoid
completely. So, a literal reading suggests that "cancel" does not include
"suspend”.
There are at least two arguments against the literal meaning. There is an
argument in logic that the greater must include the lesser. That is, a power to
cancel includes the lesser power to suspend.
There is an argument in justice. It is based on the fact that the power is
discretionary because the words are "may cancel”. Hence there is no
obligation to do so. Thus if the literal meaning is correct, the choices open to
the court are (a) to do nothing to the licence, or (b) to cancel it completely. To
appreciate the anomaly of this, assume a person had committed an offence
that necessitated some suspension but not cancellation. If “cancel” does not
include “suspend” the court has a choice between two untenable positions.
Either it grants more leniency that it should and does nothing, or imposes a
harsher penalty than it should and cancels the licence. Treating a power to
cancel as including a power to suspend allows a court to do what is just and
meet in any particular case.
Thus it seems just and proper to allow an intermediate step of a temporary
cancellation as there is with a suspension. This just result is achieved by
abandoning the literal meaning of cancel and construing it to include
suspension. There is some support for this approach from the golden rule of
interpretation.
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