Law enforcers given more effective tools
DUI penalties increased to deter impaired driving
TRURO, N.S. – Changes to the Canadian Criminal Code the past couple of years with respect to drinking and driving have both increased penalties and eased the burden for prosecutors, a Truro Crown attorney says.
“Recent changes to the criminal code make these charges easier to prosecute and the penalties stiffer,” said Thomas Kayter.
The trial process has been made “much more streamlined and straightforward,” according to Kayter, while a lot of the old “technicalities” previously used by defence lawyers have been alleviated.
“The criminal code has done away with the need for experts in many cases,” he said. “It makes it easier for us to prosecute. Things that we used to have to prove are now presumed to be proof, so to speak, for court.”
One example is that breathalyzer experts are no longer required to testify in court cases regarding an accused’s level of impairment. Instead, Crown attorneys can use recognized calculations – that the amount of alcohol in a person’s system decreases by 10 milligrams per hour – based on the amount of time that has passed between the point when a driver is stopped by police and when the breathalyzer reading is taken.
“Now, the criminal code just allows us to add 10 milligrams per hour, right there in court, so we don’t need an expert,” Kayter said.
Another change is that a person can be charged for impaired driving – by either drug or alcohol – within two hours after being behind the wheel of a vehicle.
One reason for that change is to limit a defence argument for when a driver claims to have not consumed alcohol until after they had finished driving but before providing a breath sample.
“This defence often arises where there has been a serious collision and the driver claims to have been settling their nerves,” the revised regulations state. “This undermines the integrity of the justice system as it rewards conduct specifically aimed at frustrating the breath-testing process.”
The legal level at which a driver is deemed to be impaired has also changed.
Drivers previously were charged with impaired driving if they registered a reading above 0.08 per cent (0.08 grams of alcohol in 100 ml of blood). Charges now can be laid if the driver registers at the 0.08 mark.
From a penalty standpoint, the minimum fine for refusing the breathalyzer now stands at $2,000, which is double the previous minimum of $1,000. That is intended to thwart someone attempting to avoid a stiffer monetary penalty if they believe they would have registered a high breathalyzer reading.
“The government’s given us new tools to prosecute these offences and we intend to use every one of them,” Kayter said. “The Crown will press every one of those charges to the maximum strength allowable by law.”