JUST Committee News Release
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Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights |
HOUSE OF COMMONS CHAMBRE DES COMMUNES OTTAWA, CANADA K1A 0A6 |
Comité permanent de la justice et des droits de la personne |
For immediate release
NEWS RELEASE
HOUSE COMMITTEE TABLES REPORT ON ALCOHOL-IMPAIRED DRIVING
Ottawa, June 18, 2009 -
Mr. Ed Fast, Chair of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, today tabled in the House of Commons the Committee’s report on alcohol-impaired driving. The report, entitled Ending Alcohol-Impaired Driving: A Common Approach, makes 10 recommendations to improve our efforts to eliminate alcohol-impaired driving from Canadian roads.
The Report arises from a motion adopted by the Committee that it review the issue of impaired driving. This review included consideration of the advisability of lowering the criminal Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) limits, innovative approaches in use in other countries, such as Randomised Breath Testing (RBT), the implications of advances in technology to enforce the laws, and the Criminal Code sanctions for impaired driving and how they interrelate with provincial licensing measures.
The report has been released while impaired driving continues to take a toll on Canadian road users. The Committee was told that impaired driving remains the number one criminal cause of death in Canada. That is why one of the recommendations of the Committee is that Parliament should provide a statement of principles which acknowledges the inherent risks of impaired driving and the importance of meaningful and proportionate consequences for those who endanger the lives of others and themselves.
While recognising that small amounts of alcohol can cause some impairment, the Committee recommends that the Criminal Code BAC limit be kept at its current level of eighty milligrams of alcohol in one hundred millilitres of blood. The limited resources available to law enforcement are best directed at the most dangerous drivers who are already well above the legal limit, the report concludes. A lowering of the legal limit would also put additional stress on an already-burdened criminal justice system. It should also be noted that almost all the provinces have in place a lower BAC limit which will lead to automatic licence suspensions, thus getting drivers off the road who may present a danger to others.
The Committee has recommended that tougher sanctions be introduced for repeat impaired drivers and for those drivers with a very high BAC.
On the issue of roadside testing, the Committee has recommended that random roadside breath testing be implemented. The Committee has concluded that RBT is the most effective deterrence tool available to the police. It increases the probability of an impaired driver coming into contact with the police and, therefore, increases the risk of being caught. RBT has been used successfully in other countries and will hopefully lead to fewer people driving while impaired and, therefore, fewer people being injured or killed in impaired driving accidents.
The Committee also recommends that greater use of alcohol ignition interlock devices should be encouraged and that the provinces should try to co-ordinate their legal drinking ages to reduce the practice of cross-border drinking and driving.
“The Committee’s report is the culmination of a lot of hard work spanning the 39th and 40th Parliaments,” said Fast. “It is remarkable that, despite the challenges of a minority government, our Committee was able to achieve significant consensus on the ten majority recommendations contained in this report.”
Fast praised the Committee’s non-partisan approach to the study and expressed his hope that its recommendations would lead to a more robust and coordinated approach to the fight against alcohol-impaired driving across Canada and a marked reduction in related injuries and deaths.
The Committee’s report is available on the Committee’s web site at: http://www.parl.gc.ca/JUST-E. Copies can also be obtained by contacting the Clerk of the Standing Committee.
Members of the Committee: Ed Fast (Abbotsford, Cons.), Réal Ménard (Hochelaga, BQ), Brian Murphy (Moncton-Riverview-Dieppe, Lib.), Joe Comartin (Windsor-Tecumseh, NDP), Ujjal Dosanjh (Vancouver South, Lib.), Dominic LeBlanc (Beauséjour, Lib.), Marc Lemay (Abitibi-Témiscamingue, BQ), Rob Moore (Fundy Royal, Cons.), Rick Norlock (Northumberland-Quinte West, Cons.), Daniel Petit (Charlesbourg-Haute-Saint-Charles, Cons.), Brent Rathgeber (Edmonton-St. Albert, Cons.), Brian Storseth Westlock-St. Paul, Cons.)
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