Lebreton blasts former colleagues for gutting bill
A former leader of the Conservatives in the Senate is blasting her erstwhile colleagues for spearheading a move to gut a bill aimed at cracking down on impaired driving.
Marjory Lebreton, whose daughter and grandson were tragically killed by a drunk driver 22 years ago, says she’s “appalled” that her former colleagues have succeeded in stripping the centrepiece measure out of Bill C-46.
The deleted provision would authorize police to conduct random roadside breathalyzer tests, without needing to have reasonable grounds to suspect the driver may be impaired by alcohol.
Lebreton noted that an identi- cal measure was championed by former Conservative public safety minister Steven Blaney in a private member’s bill just two years ago, with the support of some of the same senators who now argue it’s unconstitutional. His bill received unanimous approval in principle from all parties in the House of Commons but did not proceed beyond that stage.
“I must tell you in all honesty that I am profoundly disappointed by the actions and words of some of my former colleagues in the Senate and wonder how it is that some have completely reversed themselves on the issue of mandatory alcohol screening,” Lebreton told The Canadian Press in an email.
Lebreton had particularly harsh words for Conservative Sen. Denise Batters, who last month persuaded her Conserva- tive colleagues, plus one Liberal independent, on the Senate’s legal and constitutional affairs committee to delete the roadside testing measure from the bill.
At the time, Batters argued that a “glut” of impaired driving cases has already resulted in major court delays that have caused other more serious cases to be dismissed — a situation she predicted would only be made worse by approving the constitutionally questionable provision on random alcohol testing in C-46.
“I know we don’t want to see many more serious criminal charges like murder, sexual assault, serious child abuse cases dismissed because of the massive amount of charter challenges brought because of the random alcohol testing provisions in this bill,” Batters told the committee.
Lebreton said she was “shocked and saddened by the insensitivity” of Batters’ words.
“For a senator and a lawyer, to cite ‘more serious criminal charges’ in relation to impaired driving proves yet again that our society and, unfortunately, some of our legislators refuse to acknowledge the seriousness of this preventable crime,” she said. “I would like to remind my former colleague that my daughter and my grandson, who were killed by a drunk driver in 1996, are just as dead as those victims who are dead as a result of her ‘more serious’ crime of ‘murder.’”
An attempt earlier this week by independent Sen. Marc Gold to reinstate the provision was defeated on a tie vote of 38-38. Twenty-two Conservative senators voted against reinstatement, while just six supported it.