Ever since the BC Government completely revamped the DUI laws in our province by introducing roadside punishment, people have not stopped talking about immediate roadside prohibitions. Wherever we go in every corner of the province, people want to talk about what happens when you get an IRP, what are the true consequences (not what the Government tells everybody) and what are the defences to this type of DUI. There are a number of reasons why this has remained a hot topic:
Many people have received IRPs
The numbers are staggering. The average appears to be in excess of 15,000 people per year who are issued IRPs. We figure that the total number must be around 50,000 by now. That’s a lot of people who have learned directly that roadside justice is fundamentally wrong, unfair and indefensible. And then there are the family members, friends and co-workers of the people who have received IRPs. In many cases these people have seen someone close to them wrongly punished.
People think the lawful blood-alcohol content was lowered to .05
This was the red herring that allowed the Government to blow this by most casual observers. The press releases said that the main intent and purpose of the law was to lower the allowable blood-alcohol content for drivers in BC. In fact, the .05 standard existed long before. The only substantive difference between the old Motor Vehicle Act s.215 driving prohibition and the “new” one under the IRP law is the duration of the automatic driving prohibition. Under the old law it was 24 hours. Under the new law it’s 3 days for first timers.
So it was all a bunch of Government spin. They took away your right to a proper hearing in court and allowed the police to use crappy evidence. That was the real story. But they blew that past the often uncritical media and populous.
Interesting is what really happened, aside from the partial adoption of a totalitarian police state model. It turns out, because of the first calibration scandal (1 of 122), they actually raised the permissible alcohol content for drivers to .06.
But more on that another day.
Unreliable devices and unreliable testing means wrongfully punished drivers
Go back over our blog to get just a sample of what we’ve seen. The fact is we are sitting on thousands of documents revealing catastrophic functional problems with the breathalyzers (ASDs), as well as massive problems with calibration and maintenance. Moreover, the sequence of testing at the roadside never leads to reliable readings, mostly because of the inability to eliminate the significant possibility that any breath sample so obtained is contaminated with mouth alcohol.
This is something that we reveal to the media from time to time. For the most part, however, we catalog this material to use for our clients. The thing is that it is often too complex to explain to reporters because unlike the lawyers who work in our office, they’re not experts on ASDs and breathalyzers.
We keep the pressure on the Government
We have been the number one critics of the IRP scheme and the Government hates us for it. Not only do we successfully defend the most IRPs, we expose their secrets — the police secrets and the working of the OSMV. We make Freedom of Information requests demanding disclosure of documents, and so often they resist us all the way. But we don’t give up and what we dig up is staggering. Our sources continue to provide information that causes us to conclude that this is one big ugly Government and police plot to undermine our rights and our justice system.
They want the people to simply trust them. We wouldn’t trust the government to hold our drink, let alone protect us from the police. And we don’t trust the police to protect us from the police. Sadly, the only protection from bad government and bad police behaviour is lawyers and court. And from what we see this Government is working every day to undermine those protections too.
Don’t lose sight of the fact that there are many goodhearted balanced people with opinions of their own who work for the Government and who don’t hate us at all. In fact, many people who work for the Government, including people who work at ICBC Driver Services, recommend us to defend IRPs and other driving prohibitions. One of the few things that gives us pause to have optimism in our multifaceted challenge to the IRP law is that a number of BC Government employees have been unwilling to tow the Government’s line and have taken an ethical stand to oppose the scheme. And, thankfully, they let us know. And we protect our sources.
The Courts take a dim view of how the legislation is applied and the OSMV tribunal’s practices
In just the past few weeks we’ve seen three strikes against the Government’s IRP scheme in BC courts that has again got people talking. The Buhr decision has probably had the most profound effect because it opens up a panoply of new defences to IRP prohibitions on review. In that case the BC Supreme Court ruled that the OSMV couldn’t rely on this report that they had created to patch up the deficiencies in the law, the procedure or the unreliable breathalyzers. The effect has been that the OSMV tribunal is stymied.
It speaks volumes that instead of rendering decisions in the cases where this is a factor, to date they have simply written to the lawyers in each case to say that they don’t have the time to render the decision and they need more time. Is it that they don’t have time, or is it that they’re trying to find some fix?
You decide. We can’t think of any reasonable explanation, so to us it appears to be unreasonable.
The Wilson decision is hugely important but the OSMV is ignoring it. They do that. What they’ve said in review decisions where Wilson would apply is that they won’t consider it because the defence is not one of their grounds for review on their forms. Of course, the fact that a report isn’t sworn is also not a ground for review. So we’re not sure whether they will ignore the BC Court of Appeal’s decision in Murray. We won’t take the bet either way.
We keep talking about Immediate Roadside Prohibitions
We travel around BC to talk to people about the IRP scheme and how it threatens our justice system and consequently our very way of life in this country. Most important, however, is that we are always talking about Immediate Roadside Prohibitions here on our blog.
It takes a lot of time and energy to take on the Government and we can tell you that this has many of the characteristics of a street fight. We believe that we have an ethical obligation (and so does every other British Columbian) to call the Government out when they try to undermine our justice system. Our primary method to get the word out is to keep talking about immediate roadside prohibitions and how the IRP laws, flawed in so many ways, mark a dark turn by our Government to undermine our justice system and our rights.
Our method to get the message out to the world is our blog. And many people are hearing the message. So many people, in fact, that when the Buhr decision came out the traffic to our website overloaded the servers and left us unable to post regular updates.
We know how important our blog has become. It’s clear that we’re the number one source for updates on what’s going on with the IRP challenges and the twists and turns in the IRP saga. So to ensure that our blog can’t be brought down no matter what, we’ve now got our own server, located outside the reach of the Government.
Good-thinking people hate injustice
People talk about IRPs because smart people cannot reconcile the Government’s spin with what has actually taken place. In a society with a Charter of Rights, where we believe that the courts should protect us from bad laws and bad government behaviour, the DUI scheme that we have in BC is anomalous. It stands in stark contrast to those values. And it’s the canary in the coalmine.
We’re going to keep talking about Immediate Roadside Prohibitions. We can’t be silenced. On Friday September 20, 2013 – the 3rd anniversary of the IRP scheme, Paul spoke at the annual BC Trial Lawyers Association criminal law meeting about IRPs. The feedback from the presentation has been wonderful, 100% positive and very comforting. The legal community is starting to get a good idea of what’s going on, as are the good-thinking people of British Columbia.
What can you do to help us take on the BC DUI laws?
It’s as simple as clicking Like on the Facebook link below. Better yet, help us keep the conversation going by posting our blog posts or any other interesting news on the IRP scheme on Facebook and Twitter.
The more people know about the DUI laws in BC, the more support we have in our ongoing challenge to get these laws repealed or struck down. It’s now up to you to keep talking about immediate roadside prohibitions. We’ll keep you updated here on our blog.