Alberta’s stiffer drinking and driving penalties will be facing their second test over the Labour Day weekend, but will they pass?
On Sept. 1 the new provincial penalties for driving between .05 milligrams of alcohol and .09 come into effect.
The new penalties are significantly more punitive. The more stringent penalties include losing one’s car for three days for a first offence of blowing more than .05.
The discussion over the new penalties were hotly debated during the provincial election in April.
There has been a great deal of misconception regarding the new penalties.
Despite arguments to the contrary the .05 law has been in place for decades. The difference is prior to the new legislation drivers who blew a warning, when their blood alcohol level is between .05 milligrams and .09 milligrams, could be given a 24-hour suspension.
Now it is an automatic three-day licence suspension and your car is gone for the same amount of time.
Also in July drivers charged with impaired driving lost their licence until their court case concludes.
Clearly, the goal is to discourage people from drinking and driving.
However, the new penalties will likely be ripe for legal challenge as defence lawyers will argue the new penalties contravene the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Lawyers in Calgary are already getting ready to launch a challenge of the penalties.
Drunk driving is extremely prevalent and it should be a priority for the government to create reasons for people to be afraid to get behind the wheel after drinking.
However, they can’t do that by creating penalties which cannot stand the test of time. Alberta should be working with the federal government to create new cohesive legislation, not ad-hock penalties province-by-province.
