Police now have the power to demand a breath sample from anyone. Before, police had to have reasonable suspicion that someone was impaired either the smell of alcohol or drivers slurring their words. Now, the federal government made these changes to bring the law in line with drug-impaired driving laws that were recently reformed. The stronger laws are similar to ones in other countries like Australia and France. The fines are going up to the higher the blood alcohol level, the higher the fine and if you are caught the second time there are mandatory minimum 30 days imprisonment.
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Paul: “Canadians have a concept of their charter rights. They have a concept that if you never had a drink in your life, you should be free to not have to go through this. This is the problem we are going to see. If you refuse one of these samples, the $2000 fine and a criminal conviction and a one-year driving prohibition are ridiculously harsh consequences for something that is really a technical offence. You know, I’ve had a long history with this roadsides breath testers. We had about 3000 of them pulled because they were defective in 2014. They were replaced by the one that we now have, that you have in Alberta and that we have in BC – the Alco-Sensor FST, I just got disclosure this week that found out that in 2015, it took me three years to get it, that there was a software glitch with them for the first 10 months that they had them and these are the things that are used to punish people.”
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