GOVERNMENT OF CANADA INTRODUCES MEASURES TO STRENGTHEN INVESTIGATIONS OF DRUG-IMPAIRED DRIVING

"Drug-impaired driving is a serious problem, one that justifies changes to our laws to help us fight it," said Minister Cotler. "With the authority to demand physical tests and bodily fluid samples, police can better detect - and deter - driving while impaired by non-alcohol drugs. Ultimately, these amendments are about saving lives."

Drug-impaired driving is already a Criminal Code offence that can result in severe penalties - the maximum penalty is life imprisonment when the offence causes the death of another person.

The new legislation would amend the Criminal Code and give police the authority to demand:

1. Standardized Field Sobriety Tests (SFST), where there is reasonable suspicion that a driver has a drug in the body. SFSTs are divided-attention tests that evaluate a subject's ability to multitask. They are administered at the roadside.
   
2. Drug Recognition Expert (DRE) evaluations where the officer reasonably believes a drug-impaired driving offence was committed. This includes a situation where the driver fails the SFST. These are administered at the police station.
   
3. A saliva, urine or blood sample, should the DRE officer identify that impairment is caused by a specific family of drugs.

Refusal by a driver to comply with a demand would be a criminal offence.

"These reforms represent an important step in giving the police the tools they need to improve investigations of impaired driving offences," said Deputy Prime Minister McLellan.

Drug users are disproportionately involved in fatal accidents. DRE evaluations are an existing method of assisting police in investigating driving while impaired by any drug (over-the-counter, prescription or illegal). They are currently in use in most U.S. states, Australia, New Zealand and some European countries. Police in Quebec, B.C. and Manitoba already use DRE evaluations, but they may only do so when the suspect voluntarily participates. DRE evaluations have been recognized by Canadian courts and tested in U.S. courts up to the Supreme Court level.

To enhance law enforcement capacity to address drug impairment in Canada and as part of Canada's renewed Drug Strategy, announced in May 2003, $910,000 in new funding over five years has been allocated toward DRE. With these funds, the office of a National DRE coordinator has been put in place to work with law enforcement across the country and develop an operational framework for DRE in Canada. There are currently 73 certified DRE-trained officers in Canada, and a further 38 are in the process of becoming certified.

Given the seriousness of drug-impaired driving, the RCMP has also reallocated $4.1 million to get a National DRE Program underway. The RCMP is ready to work with its provincial, regional and municipal counterparts to assist in building capacity for training DREs and DRE instructors.

The proposed legislative reforms introduced today respond to Parliamentary Committees that recommended consideration of ways to strengthen the law regarding investigation of drug-impaired driving. These include the House of Commons Special Committee on the Non-Medical Use of Drugs (Bill C-38) in the fall of 2003, the Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs (2002) and the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights (1999).

An on-line version of the legislation will be available at www.parl.gc.ca.

To learn more about Canada's renewed Drug Strategy, please visit the Health Canada website at http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ahc-asc/activit/strateg/drugs-drogues/index_e.html.

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• Backgrounder: Strengthening Drug-Impaired Driving Investigations
• Backgrounder: Drug Recognition Expert Testing
  

Denise Rudnicki
Director of Communications
Office of the Minister of Justice
(613) 992-4621

Alex Swann
Special Assistant
Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and
Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
(613) 991-2863

Media Relations
Department of Justice Canada
(613) 957-4207

Media Relations
Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada
(613) 991-0657