Part 2: Alcohol-impaired driving

Part 2 of the new impaired driving legislation significantly reforms the entire Criminal Code regime dealing with transportation offences, including alcohol-impaired driving. It will come into force on December 18, 2018.

Combined with the new drug-impaired driving offences in Part 1 of the legislation, this will create a modernized, simplified, coherent legislative framework addressing all transportation offences including impaired driving in Canada.

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Some key elements include:

• simplifying and modernizing the transportation provisions, including the impaired driving provisions, in the Criminal Code to create a more coherent and efficient legislative framework

• authorizing mandatory alcohol screening to make it easier to detect whether a driver is impaired

• eliminating some defences that encourage risk-taking behaviour

• making it easier to prove blood alcohol concentration for some impaired driving offences

• clarifying what information the Crown is required to disclose to prove blood alcohol concentration

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Under the current law, police officers must have reasonable suspicion that a driver has alcohol in their body before doing any roadside testing. When Part 2 of the legislation comes into force, police officers who have an approved screening device on hand will be able to test a breath sample of any driver they lawfully stop, even without reasonable suspicion that the driver has alcohol in their body. This would be done after the person has been lawfully stopped pursuant to existing authority (common law or provincial highway traffic act). A driver who refused to provide a breath sample could be subject to a criminal offence.

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Research suggests that up to 50% of drivers with a blood alcohol concentration above the legal limit are not detected at roadside check stops. Mandatory alcohol screening will assist in deterring individuals impaired by alcohol from driving, as well as better detect those who do. It is currently authorized in over 40 countries worldwide, including Australia, New Zealand, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, The Netherlands and Sweden. Authorities in Ireland credit mandatory screening reducing the number of deaths on Irish roads by approximately 40 per cent in the first four years after it was enacted.

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The Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada tabled a Charter Statement to help inform public debate on the constitutionality of mandatory alcohol screening.