EDMONTON - As the province pushes ahead with legislation to increase sanctions on suspected drunk drivers, Alberta’s justice minister says he wants to talk to Ottawa about potentially toughening federal laws.
Specifically, Verlyn Olson said he is interested in the possibility of lowering the current .08 blood-alcohol threshold for laying a criminal charge on a driver.
Olson said he needs to do more research on the issue, but suggested .05 might be a more appropriate standard.
“Right now, .08 is the criminal standard and that’s something I’d be interested in talking to the feds about,” he said. “There is discussion that goes on about what is the right number, but I think it’s accepted that .05 is the beginning of impairment. It’s not there as an arbitrary number.”
Olson noted that most western European countries and Australian provinces use a .05 limit, Japan has a standard of .03, Sweden is .02. Hungary and the Czech Republic have a zero-alcohol policy.
Leila Moulder, president of the Edmonton chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said she would support reviewing the .08 standard in Canada.
“I don’t see why that would be a bad thing,” she said. “At the .05 level, people are impaired. There is reaction time impairment, you are slower, you aren’t quite as co-ordinated, your fine motor skills aren’t working at a top-notch level.”
Moulder’s organization is also supporting the province’s proposed legislation, Bill 26, which would impose some of the strictest administrative penalties in the country.
For drivers who record a blood-alcohol level between .05 and .08, which is not a Criminal Code violation, the province currently allows police to impose a 24-hour licence suspension. The new legislation would increase that to an automatic three-day suspension and a three-day vehicle seizure for a first offence. A seven-day vehicle seizure along with a 15-day suspension or 30-day suspension would be triggered for a second and third offence, respectively.
For drivers who blow over .08, they will get a criminal charge, and lose their licence until the charge is resolved by the courts. Those convicted will be required to equip their car with an interlock device, which measures a person’s breath before starting the ignition.
The bill also targets new drivers, imposing a seven-day seizure and 30-day suspension if they are found with any alcohol in their system.
“It’s a definite step forward,” Moulder said. “We think this will serve as a better deterrent because from what we had seen, the 24-hour suspension wasn’t enough.”
However, some civil liberties advocates suggest the legislation may create more problems than it solves, since the current bill sidesteps due process and will wind up punishing innocent people.
“This is a very significant inroad into the panoply of rights we have in the criminal justice system and under the charter,” said D’Arcy Depoe of the Criminal Trial Lawyers Association. “No one has sympathy for the 90 per cent who are probably factually guilty, but what about the rest?”
Depoe said the proposed lengthy suspensions and seizures essentially allow police to impose punishment on people before any charge is laid or a case is heard in court. That will wind up hurting people who need their cars for work, or must transport their children to school or daycare.
“The presumption of innocence is gone and your ability to defend yourself is gone,” he said.
“When you have police making the decision at roadside, all the issues that would ordinarily arise at a criminal trial are effectively pre-determined. Was the person actually driving? Was the (breathalyzer) machine operating properly? Did the person have a reasonable excuse? Some people can’t blow because of medical issues or an injury.
“And you are not entitled to disclosure of Crown’s case, and not entitled to cross-examine the police officer.”
Depoe also took issue with the idea that people who blow over .08 should lose their licence until the criminal charge is resolved by the courts. He said it can currently take between six months to a year to receive a trial date in provincial court, and then there is the danger of further adjournments if the lawyers, the accused or judge is sick.
The province estimates impaired driving charges take up 40-per-cent of all trial time among its Crown prosecutors. Depoe said he believes the legislation is designed as a way to reduce that figure, by trying to force people to plead guilty so they can get their licence back sooner.
Hal Joffe of the Rocky Mountain Civil Liberties Association said the legislation also has a jurisdictional issue, since drunk driving legislation typically comes under the purview of the federal government, which has set the standard at .08.
“The province is essentially saying there is a lesser impairment at .05, that we’re going to have a different standard. They are trying to get around the jurisdictional issue by saying there are imposing only administrative penalties.”
Joffe said this issue may explain why Olson is interested in talking to Ottawa about lowering the Criminal Code threshold.
“That, in my mind, would be a more proper way to go.”
This is the second time in recent years the Alberta government and Premier Alison Redford have been accused of pushing legislation that attempts to get around due process. In 2009, then-justice minister Redford pressed into service “civil forfeiture” legislation that permits authorities to seize and sell property suspected of being used in the commission of a crime. Such seizures can occur without a criminal charge, let alone a conviction.
“The premier is a lawyer and the attorney general is lawyer, and this legislation has been devised by senior people in the justice department who are lawyers,” Depoe said. “I don’t know what they are thinking.
“In my mind, it is pandering to loud interest groups like MADD and relying on the great mass of the population not really looking at this in any detail.”
Olson said the province is prepared for any legal challenges.
Redford has said she would like to see the drunk driving penalties in place by Christmas, though Transportation Minister Ray Danyluk has suggested next summer might be more likely.
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