September 20th, 2011 marked one year of Immediate Driving Prohibitions in British Columbia. Although the law has been constitutionally challenged, no decision has yet been made. You can read more about the Constitutional challenge in my earlier blog post, located here.
Since the challenge, things have not changed. Individuals in British Columbia are still being stopped and issued harsh penalties without being afforded the right to contact counsel. Impaired driving charges are being forwarded to the Crown only in exceptional circumstances, meaning that the jurisdiction of the court in criminal charges is still being ousted.
Some defences that previously resulted in an IRP being overturned have now been eliminated. For example, our office used to experience success in arguing that the ASD result could not be considered if the service expiry date was recorded as MM/YY instead of MM/DD/YY as the Report to Superintendent requests. However, the Superintendent’s Report on ASDs was later amended to rule that the day of the month on which the ASD expires is no longer necessary.
We are eagerly awaiting the outcome of the Constitutional challenge. The legislation does not, in my view, meet its intended purpose of getting problem drinking drivers off the road. Rather, it penalizes people who do not deserve such harsh sanctions. Many of our clients have perfect driving records, no history of alcohol problems, and have never made this mistake before. Many of our clients are factually innocent. My hope is that this legislation will be struck down, licenses will be reinstated, and the government will work find a solution to the problem of drinking and driving that does not oppress individuals who are not causing harm.