In the News

Stakeholders organize to help craft tough new rules, including random breath testing of motorists
By Pamela Fayerman
Vancouver Sun
March 8, 2010

Changes to the Criminal Code, including tough provisions for random blood testing, will be considered next week at meetings in Ottawa aimed at beefing up impaired-driving laws.

The federal meetings with stakeholder groups follow on the heels of Solicitor-General Kash Heed saying B.C. is about to crack down on drunk driving.

The Ottawa meetings will be held March 17 and 18, and the federal department of justice is also inviting written submissions until April 30, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) said.

MADD gave B.C. a C-plus rating last year in a report comparing provincial impaired driving laws that aim to reduce the number of alcohol- and drug-related crashes, fatalities and injuries. Ontario and Manitoba got the highest marks; Nunavut got a failing grade.

The Ottawa meetings will include discussions about amending the Criminal Code to, among other things, give police the power to conduct random breath testing, Andrew Murie, MADD’s chief executive officer, said in an interview.

Random breath testing was advocated in the B.C. Medical Journal in an article co-authored by Dr. Roy Purssell, a Vancouver Hospital emergency physician.

Purssell said hundreds of crashes, injuries and deaths from drunk driving could be averted each year if police had the authority to conduct random breath tests. Police may administer such tests now only if they have a reasonable suspicion of drunk driving.

Random breath testing would represent wholesale change and produce big results, “not minor tinkering,” Murie said.

“It would make a fundamental difference in saving lives,” he said, adding that in Australia and some European countries, deaths from drunk driving plummeted 25 to 35 per cent following introduction of random breath tests.

Federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson has spoken in favour of allowing police to conduct random breath tests.

Next week, stakeholders including MADD, the Canadian Bar Association, civil liberties groups and addiction experts are expected to give the federal government submissions and in April, discussions are expected between Ottawa and provincial governments.

Representatives of MADD met with Heed last fall to discuss the report card, which ranked B.C. seventh in the country.

“The solicitor-general was very courteous, but he was obviously not very happy with the C-plus,” Murie said. “Yet he didn’t try to defend the B.C. record. He agreed that B.C. could and should do more, but he didn’t tip his hand.”

Heed is still not tipping his hand. In a statement e-mailed to The Vancouver Sun on Monday, he would not divulge what changes he is proposing.

“We continue to advocate for stricter laws in Canada for impaired driving,” his e-mail said.

“While consultations continue with the federal government, we are putting in place some initiatives to ensure that our roads are as safe as we can make them and that we can deal with some of the impaired driving that’s taking place on our roads.”

He noted that this year’s throne speech promised that “significant changes will be introduced to reduce impaired and dangerous driving and improve public safety. We’re looking at more tools that we can put in the hands of police at the street level to make sure there are immediate consequences when people drive while impaired.

“It is our hope that our proposed legislation will pass and we’ll be able to create more sanctions here in British Columbia. ... I’ll have more to say on the details of our proposed legislation once it has been introduced.”

There are up to 150 fatalities each year in B.C. due to drunk driving, and Murie said he has confidence in Heed’s determination.

“We were very impressed with him. As a former police officer, he gets it. He’s been at crash scenes so he understands the impact.”

Among other measures, Murie said B.C. could make the following changes to improve its rating on drunk driving laws:

- Introduce a seven- to 14-day licence suspension for drivers with blood alcohol levels over 0.05 and drivers who police believe are impaired by alcohol or drugs.

- Enact a zero-tolerance provision to require drivers under 21 and drivers who have been licensed for under five years to have no alcohol at all in their blood.

- Give police the power to demand that supervisors of novice drivers identify themselves and present their licences on demand, and ensure that the supervising drivers haven’t been drinking.

- Introduce nighttime and high-speed roadway restrictions for novice drivers.

For more on MADD’s recommendations to B.C., go to http://madd.ca/english/research/rtp.html.