Ottawa considers lowering blood alcohol limit for drivers

Susan Thompson
Smoky River Express

Drunk drivers in Canada might one day be facing criminal charges if caught with a blood alcohol level of 0.05, rather than the current 0.08.

A House of Commons justice committee has been studying whether the federal government should lower the legal limit for impaired driving.

The study was initiated by Justice Minister Rob Nicholson’s parliamentary secretary, Rob Moore, after he presented a petition to the government to strengthen impaired driving laws from students of Hampton High School.

“Impaired driving is the leading criminal cause of death and injury,” Nicholson said. “The impact this crime has on families in Canada is incalculable. I want the committee to take a look on how we can strengthen the laws and reduce the occurrence of impaired driving.”

McLennan RCMP Sgt. Ged Dentinger says that drunk driving is “absolutely” a problem in our area, adding, “It’s a problem everywhere.”

Dentinger says a change to federal legislation would be necessary for local police to charge drivers at the 0.05 blood alcohol limit, even though most provinces already temporarily suspend the licences of drinking drivers caught with 50 milligrams of alcohol to 100 millilitres of blood, and several provinces and territories are also strengthening their own legislation to deal with drinking drivers below the current criminal limit as part of Canada’s National Strategy to Reduce Impaired Driving.

“I’m not aware of the provincial guidelines. We’re dictated basically by the criminal code, that’s the way we do business, and there’s no provincial law that states that we charge people at 0.05,” Dentinger says.

He believes a change in legislation to lower the legal blood alcohol limit would help police deal with the problem of drunk driving because tolerance for alcohol can vary depending on many different factors including body weight and gender.

“Some people who may be under the current legal limit may have trouble functioning,” Dentinger says.

However, some organizations such as the Canada Safety Council oppose lowering the legal blood alcohol limit, saying the change would prevent police from going after more dangerous drivers with higher blood alcohol levels, cause more contempt for the law, and lead to more court challenges.

“Public safety is best served by dealing with drivers whose blood alcohol is below 80 outside the Criminal Code,” Canada Safety Council’s past president Emile Therien told the justice committee on February 25.

“Criminalizing at 50 will compromise Canada’s fight against impaired driving.”

“People with higher levels have more distinct indicia of impairment. If they lower the levels drivers would be harder to detect, and a lot of the investigations would be based on roadside screens,” according to Sergeant Dentinger.

But he acknowledges changing legislation could lead to more defence challenges by drivers trying to avoid a criminal record.

“I would think so, because even right now a lot of the charges that are contested are those blow lower, the ones closer to the legal limit. So if you have somebody who blows double the limit, you see a lot less of those people contesting that in court in my experience.”

“Unfortunately we have truckloads of case law in relation to impaired driving. It’s probably one of the most difficult offences to prosecute and to prove in court, and you know that’s not going to change by lowering the limit.”

“If the legal limit is lowered by the federal government,”Dentinger says, “It’s going to be a lot more difficult for police officers to articulate the indicia for impairment observed, and it’ll be easier for defence to come up with reasonable excuses why the client was exhibiting such behaviour.”

Along with possibly lowering the legal blood alcohol limit, the justice committee is also looking at other possible measures to deal with impaired driving.

This may include allowing police to impose random roadside breath testing, instead of restricting breath checks to those suspected of being under the influence of alcohol.

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson currently has no immediate plans to introduce legislation no matter what the committee concludes, but “the minister looks forward to seeing what happens out of committee,” said his spokesman, Darren Eke.

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