Canada

Bill C-46 made reforms to alcohol-impaired driving and drug-impaired driving, and police now have powerful

new tools to prosecute drivers

OTTAWA — A sweeping overhaul of Canada’s impaired driving laws was given Royal Assent on Thursday, meaning the new rules are starting to come into effect and drivers should be prepared.

Bill C-46 made reforms to both alcohol-impaired driving and drug-impaired driving, and police now have powerful new tools to detect and charge drivers. The bill also made many technical changes to help the courts deal with impaired driving cases more quickly.

There are three big — and controversial — changes Canadians will need to know about.

Starting in December (180 days after Royal Assent), police can require a roadside breath test for any driver. The crucial change is they will no longer need reasonable suspicion the person has been drinking. Drivers who refuse this test face a criminal charge with similar penalties to an impaired driving conviction.

This provoked heated debate during the Senate’s study of Bill C-46, as lawyers and civil liberties groups argued it violated the Charter’s protection against unreasonable searches. There is also concern it will disproportionately affect minorities due to racial profiling.

The government points to other countries that have random testing, such as Australia and Ireland, and argues those countries have seen a dramatic reduction in impaired driving rates. Critics argue those stats are misleading because they aren’t being compared to a selective testing regime like Canada’s, and point out Canada has also seen sharp declines in impaired driving under the current rules.

Canadian police officers can now use roadside screening devices that test saliva for the presence of cocaine, methamphetamine and THC, the main psychoactive ingredient in cannabis. Police will not be able to use random testing for these; they will still need reasonable suspicion before demanding the test.

However, it will likely be months until these are seen on Canada’s roads. Even though this section of the bill comes into force immediately, a number of steps must still happen.

First, Wilson-Raybould will need to sign off on which devices are approved for use. Devices are being independently tested by the National Research Council, but it is taking longer than expected. Department officials testified at a Senate committee in May that they have no idea when the testing will be done.

Once the testing is finished, Wilson-Raybould will make a ministerial order to approve them for use, but that needs to go through a 30-day public consultation. Then the devices need to be purchased and frontline officers will need to be trained on them. All this means it could be well into the fall before police are using them.

Canada will now be setting a “per se” level for THC in the blood within two hours of driving, meaning police can lay an impaired driving charge based solely on the blood test results without needing to further prove impairment.

We have long been doing this for blood alcohol levels, laying criminal charges if a driver’s level is above 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood.

But the science linking THC blood levels to impairment is much weaker than the science on blood alcohol levels, and defence lawyers will almost certainly challenge this once it’s in effect. Medical marijuana patients are also likely to be at the forefront of challenges.

The per se levels are set through regulations, not the legislation itself. The government has already proposed its levels, based on nanograms per millilitre of blood:

Consuming even small amounts of cannabis shortly before driving could put someone over these limits. The government has said that until the science improves, it is taking a “zero-tolerance” approach.

This is just one area, of many that needs a "sweeping overhaul" in Canada's corrupt and dysfunctional justice system that promotes criminality and crime, abuse of the abused.

Ottawa, Canada's most corrupt city with the most corrupt police, CAS workers and Judges, leads the nation on state funded criminality.

Our judges are chosen by the Ontario Government, under the thin veneer of independent selection by government appointed sycophants who appoint the least suitable most corrupt to the bench to "rubber stamp" corrupt decisions.

The level of criminality in the Ottawa Police is mind boggling. Fabrication of evidence is "normal", its normal to riddle the files of any person they don't like so the next officer who gets the opportunity can well, fabricate evidence knowing, any officer who follows will do the same to protect them.

Its a culture of silence, that goes from the bottom of the Ottawa Police to the very top of the Ottawa police supported by a Justice System that will cover up for these lowest forms of life who call them selves Ottawa Police.

In Ottawa, Van T. Nguyen No. 952 fabricated evidence, and to protect him, Samuel Wayne Smith No. 880 did the same. Then knowing that the other two officers fabricated evidence, Peter Van Der Zander No. 1639, did the same.

If you have a complaint about any of these evidence fabricating criminals employed

Canada's impaired driving laws just got a huge and controversial overhaul