DRUG-IMPAIRED DRIVING BILL FACES DELAYS IN SENATE.
Legal pot bill will be priority, despite concerns
THE SENATE SHOULD BE MOVING QUICKLY TO PASS THIS LEGISLATION.
• A Liberal government bill that adjusts impaired driving laws in tandem with plans to legalize marijuana is facing delays in the Senate, despite growing concerns over its urgency.
The upper chamber’s legal committee has hit the pause button on a review of Bill C-46 until early May so it can focus on meeting a May 1 deadline to report on cannabis legislation, Bill C-45.
But some senators, and groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving, are urging the committee to do everything it can not to delay the impaired driving bill, saying lives are at stake and police need to see a final version of the bill in order to prepare.
Liberal Sen. Serge Joyal, the committee’s chair, said the committee is switching focus on “order” from the Senate, which agreed on a set of deadlines. He added that senators shouldn’t be rushed out of taking the time to understand the consequences and impact of the legislation. “I can understand those who are in a hurry to say let’s finish with this as soon as possible. I have great receptivity for the urgency to go with that. But on the other hand not at the expense of doing the things right, and, I should say, responsibly.”
This should not be seen as a filibuster, Joyal said, although some Senate sources perceive the delay to be orchestrated by the Tories. The committee’s vice-chair, Conservative Sen. Pierre-Hughes Boisvenu, said “there’s no partisanship in what we’re doing.”
Joyal explained that according to testimony heard in committee, the justice department will likely approve drug screening devices around the end of March. Then these still need to be procured and distributed to police forces. “It’s not as if everything was ready to unfold and we were waiting for the bill,” he said.
Boisvenu also justified delays by saying that police forces need more time to prepare for the law to come into place. He said he plans to try amending the bill so its coming-into-force will be contingent upon police capacity.
But taking the opposite view, Independent Sen. Marc Gold, another member of the committee, believes that police forces would benefit from having laws on the books sooner. “Once the bill is passed and (police) know exactly what’s in the bill then the training, which has already ramped up, can be fine-tuned to deal with the content of the law,” he said.
He disagrees with the delay, saying it could be avoided. “If my colleagues were prepared to add some extra sessions to sit as a committee outside our regular times, or to extend our sittings longer so we could do both, I would totally be in support of that.”
Groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving are also advocating for the bill’s urgent passage. “Lives are being lost to impaired driving every day. The Senate should be moving quickly to pass this legislation and protect Canadians from impaired driving, not holding up the legislation unnecessarily,” the group recently said in a press release.
Conservatives in the Senate have recently been accused, in several cases, of delaying bills for the sake of delay. But Boisvenu said “the government has a right to legalize marijuana because it’s been elected with a big majority,” and said he believes that both bills can pass before the summer.
Several of the legislation’s components, including debatable per se limits on THC and new random breathalyzer testing, have come under scrutiny. Because of concerns, some worry the law’s constitutionality could be challenged in court. There is no consensus on the Senate legal committee. Joyal is concerned. Gold is not. They are both constitutional experts.
The Liberals promised weed would be legal this summer. To help that happen, the government’s representative in the Senate, Sen. Peter Harder, secured an agreement from all Senate groups that committee reports on Bill C-45 would come in by May 1 and a third-reading vote would be held by June 7. There is no similar pact for Bill C-46, but a source in Harder’s office said one could be proposed if necessary.
Senators are expected to try amending both bills. If the Senate adopts an amended version of a bill, it will have to be sent back to the House of Commons for approval by the Liberal majority. If they disagree, it could go back and forth, almost certainly causing further delay.