Ottawa moves let police test drivers for drugs

[dArKeR]

By KIM LUNMAN
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail

Ottawa — The federal government introduced legislation yesterday that would give police sweeping powers to charge drug-impaired drivers, including intrusive physical testing that would allow them to take saliva, blood and urine tests from motorists.

The new bill would amend the Criminal Code to give police the authority to demand roadside standardized field sobriety tests when they have a reasonable suspicion that a driver is impaired by drugs.


It would also give investigators the right to administer drug recognition expert evaluations, known as DRE evaluations, in cases where the officer reasonably believes a drug-impaired driving offence was committed. The tests are administered at a police station after a driver fails a roadside test. Police would be allowed to collect saliva, urine and blood samples to determine whether the driver has drugs, including marijuana, in his or her system. Refusal to comply would be a criminal offence.

http://theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040427.wxdriving27/BNStory/Front/

And when are the same type of laws passed to catch politicians who have lied and sent our children to die in unjust wars? When are the laws passed to catch Corporate CEO and Board of Directors who are stealing and lying?

[iverglas]

1. well ...

And when are the same type of laws passed to catch politicians who have lied and set our children to die in unjust wars? When are the laws passed to catch Corporate CEO and Board of Directors who are stealing and lying?

(a) up here where the law is being proposed, our politicians don't have much to do with unjust wars;

but on the other hand,

(b) we just elect the lying stealing CEOs/Board members (Martin, Mulroney ...) Prime Minister.

;)

Mulroney's Airbus corruption affair is still in the courts in Germany (although his own Teflon suit seems to have stood up to the test here in Canada); when Martin was finance minister, he just made a habit of changing Canada's tax laws to facilitate his shipping corporation's tax avoidance practices.

And of course then there are the politicians who get caught drinking and doing bad things (the Premier of British Columbia getting drunk and driving in Hawaii; the Premier of Alberta getting drunk and having his chauffeur make an unscheduled stop at a homeless shelter so he could upbraid the residents and demand that they get jobs ... the Premier of Ontario getting drunk most of his life, and doing dog knows what, drunk or sober, that prompted him, presumably when his estranged wife offered to reveal some of it, to suddenly resign a while back and not go for the leadership of the new federal right-wing party this year ...).


The Criminal Code here (federal) already makes it an offence to drive will impaired by drugs (and to refuse a breathalyzer):

http://www.canlii.org/ca/sta/c-46/sec253.html

Criminal Code
PART VIII OFFENCES AGAINST THE PERSON AND REPUTATION
Motor Vehicles, Vessels and Aircraft
Operation while impaired

253. Every one commits an offence who operates a motor vehicle or vessel or operates or assists in the operation of an aircraft or of railway equipment or has the care or control of a motor vehicle, vessel, aircraft or railway equipment, whether it is in motion or not,

(a) while the person's ability to operate the vehicle, vessel, aircraft or railway equipment is impaired by alcohol or a drug; or

(b) having consumed alcohol in such a quantity that the concentration in the person's blood exceeds eighty milligrams of alcohol in one hundred millilitres of blood.

The bill will provide the means of testing for impairment by drugs, since roadside breathalyzers evidently don't do it accurately/effectively.

Here's the bill in question: http://www.parl.gc.ca/37/3/parlbus/chambus/house/bills/government/C-32/C-32_1/ContentsE.html

http://www.parl.gc.ca/37/3/parlbus/chambus/house/bills/government/C-32/C-32_1/C-32-2E.html

Summary
This enactment amends the Criminal Code to clarify that the reference to impairment by alcohol or a drug in paragraph 253(1)(a) of that Act includes impairment by a combination of alcohol and a drug. It authorizes specially trained peace officers to conduct tests to determine whether a person is impaired by a drug or a combination of alcohol and a drug and also authorizes the taking of samples of bodily fluids to test for the presence of a drug or a combination of alcohol and a drug in a person’s body. The enactment makes certain amendments that are necessary as a result of changes made to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act by An Act to amend the Contraventions Act and the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. It also makes consequential amendments to other Acts.

.