New Drunk Driving Laws in Province could Violate Charter

New Drunk Driving Laws in Province could Violate Charter

www.trurodaily.com

One of the changes that will come into effect Monday will allow police to pull over cars randomly and ask the driver to submit to a sobriety test.
“Do we want to live in the kind of society where police can pull people over and make demands?” she asked. “Where does that end when we start allowing that to happen?”
Under the current law, police can only pull over cars for erratic driving, crossing over the solid line, or other moving violations that might suggest the driver is impaired.
“This law will allow random checks to be done,” said Codiac RCMP Cpl. Mike Gaudet.

(visit the link for the full news article)



[edit on 10-9-2008 by StrangeBrew]

This story is BIG for those that think Canada enjoys more lax "police state" type enforcement. This law, unjust as it is, may pave the way for similar legislation across the nation.

As the lawyer in the story said, I also believe this is a gross violation of the Charter. For instance...

DETENTION OR IMPRISONMENT.
9. Everyone has the right not to be arbitrarily detained or imprisoned.

definition of arbitrary: Determined by chance, whim, or impulse, and not by necessity, reason, or principle


not to mention...


LIFE, LIBERTY AND SECURITY OF PERSON.
7. Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice.


Liberty defined: The quality or state of being free; freedom from physical restraint; freedom from arbitrary or despotic control


and for the record...


LEGISLATIVE POWERS NOT EXTENDED.
31. Nothing in this Charter extends the legislative powers of any body or authority.


If randomly pulled over for no reason (arbitrary) you can ask if you are being detained. If the answer is no, you'd ask "Am I free to go?" If the answer is no, then you are being detained.


www.trurodaily.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 10-9-2008 by StrangeBrew]

This is why I am so sick of Canadian flag waving in other threads related to things like this in the United States because this stuff IS happening here too.

I just drove to work and there was a "safety check" for vehicles, thankfully they did not pull me over and get me fired for being late.

The leaf is crumbling.

We have no rights in Canada, especially where I live here in Quebec. They set up road blocks and stop every car that goes by to see if any one smells like booze. In Quebec we cannot choose our children's school, you require a certificate in order to send your child to an english school otherwise they have to go to french school. In offices we are not allowed to answer our phones in english, only in french, I worked at one place where we were visited by the "language police" and we were given stickers to put on our keyboards to cover up the english stuff like enter, tab, home...unbelievable. We are not allowed to have a store sign in english alone, it has to be french only or bilingual but the french has to be written larger than the english. That's just the tip of the iceberg. Even with the rights of Americans being trampled they still have much more freedom than us Canadians.

Just my opinion.