DRUG-IMPAIRMENT LAW BALANCES RIGHTS AND DRIVING SAFETY

Re: Common sense goes up in smoke, April 30.

This opinion article seriously misstates the anti-drug impaired
driving provisions of Bill C-32 before Parliament.

An officer will be able to require a person to perform roadside
physical sobriety tests upon suspicion of a drug in the body, based
on behaviour or physical symptoms such as eyes that do not react
normally to light. This is similar to the suspicion required for an
alcohol breath test.

It is only if the driver fails the road-side sobriety tests --
meaning that the driver is unable to walk a straight line or stand on
one foot and hold the other foot six inches off the ground -- that
the officer can demand further tests at the police station.

Before the drug recognition evaluation-certified officer can demand a
bodily substance for analysis for the presence of a drug, the officer
must have formed the opinion that a particular family of drugs or a
combination of drugs and alcohol is causing the impairment. Then
driving with the impairment is a criminal act because the person has
taken the wheel after voluntarily consuming a substance that reduces
the ability to drive.

What Bill C-32 will do is to compel the person to participate in the
physical co-ordination tests and in the drug recognition evaluation
(DRE) process. It is drafted to parallel the alcohol breath testing
provisions that have been found to be justifiable under the Charter,
and I am confident that this bill will also survive Charter challenges.

Ultimately, a court will decide whether to convict on the charge of
impaired driving based on evidence of erratic driving or behaviour,
failure to complete simple physical co-ordination tests, a DRE report
on the physical symptoms observed, and an analysis of bodily
substances. Currently, in cases where a driver participates in a DRE
evaluation on a voluntary basis, courts in Canada have found that
this is admissible and sufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt
that the driver was impaired.

Bill C-32 is a realistic response to a serious problem. It will give
the police the tools they need to better combat drug-impaired driving
and will reduce the number of Canadians killed and injured by this crime.

Rob Nicholson,

Ottawa

Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada