Bill C-2 seeks to increase penalties for those individuals who choose to drive while under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs. More specifically, Bill C-2 proposes an increase in fines and minimum jail terms for impaired driving and focuses on drug-impaired driving by giving police the authority to demand roadside Physical Sobriety Tests and bodily fluid samples at the police station.
Currently under the Criminal Code of Canada it is an offence to drive while impaired by alcohol or a drug, or a combination of the two and, while it is an offence to drive with a BAC of over 0.08, no similar drug limit exists. Simply put, although drug-impaired driving is a criminal offence, police have few legally designated means of controlling the offence. Today, police do not rely on drug testing; police instead rely on non-quantifiable symptoms of drug-impairment, such as erratic driving and witness testimony. Drug tests are admissible as evidence in court only if the accused participates voluntarily.
Bill C-2 proposes to give police the power to demand Standardized Field Sobriety Tests (SFST), administered at the roadside, when there is a reasonable suspicion that a driver has a drug in the body. If the driver fails the SFST, the officer will then be considered to have reasonable grounds to believe that a drug-impaired driving offence has occurred, and can take the driver to a police station for a Drug Recognition Expert (DRE) evaluation.
On the occasion that a DRE officer identifies that a specific drug is causing impairment, Bill C-2 allows the officer to take a sample of bodily fluid (saliva, urine, or blood). Such tests will look for impairment by illegal, over-the-counter and prescription drugs. Refusal to comply with these demands would be a criminal offence, punishable under the same Criminal Code penalties for refusing to take a breathalyzer test.
Bill C-2 also increases penalties for both alcohol and drug-impaired driving and creates new offences with respect to impaired driving causing death or bodily harm. The proposed legislation also aims to further deter drug impaired driving by making it an offence under the Criminal Code to be in care or control of a vehicle while in possession of illegal drugs, punishable by up to 5 years imprisonment.
In recent decades, some drivers charged with impaired driving have avoided conviction for having a BAC over 0.08 by calling on witnesses to give sworn testimony that the accused drank small amounts of alcohol (“only two beers”) which would not be enough to cause their BAC to be over 0.08. This ‘two beer’ defense has had the effect of invalidating the presumption that BAC readings of approved instruments equaled the driver’s actual BAC at the time of driving, despite the fact that those instruments were rigorously tested with no indication of improper operation or malfunction. The proposed legislative changes severely restrict such challenges to the BAC result. Evidence for challenges can include evidence that the machine was not functioning properly or was not operated properly. In addition, the Alcohol Test Record, which is printed by the breath test machine and confirms that is in good working order, will be admitted as evidence.See: Canadian Criminial Justice Association
