Report by the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada on the Implementation and Operation of former Bill C-46: An Act to amend the Criminal Code (offences relating to conveyances) and to make consequential amendments to other Acts

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Table of Contents

• List of tables and charts
• List of abbreviations
• Message from the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada
• 1.0 Executive Summary
• 1.1 Introduction
  • 1.2 Background
    • 1.2.1 Detection and Deterrence of Impaired Driving
    • 1.2.2 Strengthening Drug-Impaired Driving
    • 1.2.3 Facilitating the Investigation and Prosecution of Impaired Driving and Creating Trial Efficiencies
    • 1.2.4. Litigation
  • 1.3 Racial profiling and former Bill C-46
• 2.0 Research Plan
  • 2.1 Data Limitations
    • 2.1.1 Impacts of COVID-19 on Impaired Driving
• 3.0 Data to assess the impact of the legislative amendments
  • 3.1 Traffic safety, fatalities and injuries on roads in Canada
    • 3.1.1 Transport Canada National Collision Database
    • 3.1.2 Impact of MAS on Alcohol-Involved Driver Fatalities
    • 3.1.3 National Drug Driving Study
    • 3.1.4 Impacts of cannabis legalization on cannabis-impaired driving
  • 3.2 Prevalence of drugs and alcohol on Canadian roads
    • 3.2.1 Roadside surveys
    • 3.2.2 Self-reported data on prevalence of alcohol use before driving
    • 3.2.3 Self-reported data on prevalence of cannabis or other drug use before driving
  • 3.3 Self-reported awareness and impact of legislative changes
  • 3.4 Police enforcement and response
    • 3.4.1 Police officer training
    • 3.4.2 Police Use of SFST, DRE, ADSE
    • 3.4.3 Police Use of MAS
  • 3.5 Police-reported statistics
    • 3.5.1 Police-reported incidents of alcohol- and drug-impaired driving
    • 3.5.2 Police-reported incidents of impaired driving causing bodily harm or death
    • 3.5.3 Number and proportion of impaired driving incidents cleared by charge
    • 3.5.4 Time to clear impaired driving incidents
  • 3.6 Court statistics
    • 3.6.1 Case processing times
    • 3.6.2 Court outcomes and sentencing
  • 3.7 Characteristics of people who drive after using alcohol or drugs and experiences with traffic stops
    • 3.7.1 Police-reported statistics on characteristics of drivers accused in impaired driving incidents
    • 3.7.2 Characteristics of people who have operated a vehicle after consuming alcohol
    • 3.7.3 Characteristics of people who have operated a vehicle after consuming cannabis in combination with alcohol or other drugs
  • 3.8 Indigenous peoples’ and racialized groups’ experiences with police traffic stops
• 4.0 Conclusion
• References
• Annex 1: Table of indicators and data sources
• Annex 2: Annotated Bibliography

List of tables and charts

• Table 1 — Percent of injuries that occurred in collisions involving an impaired driver by road user, 2016–2019, Canada
• Table 2— Percent of fatalities that occurred in collisions involving an impaired driver by road user, 2016–2019, Canada
• Table 3 — Number (percent) of injured drivers who test positive for impairing substances by age and sex
• Table 4 — Comparison of pre-post Mandatory Alcohol Screening Edmonton Police Service Checkstop Statistics, 2014–2019
• Table 5 - Comparison of pre-post MAS Edmonton Police Service Checkstop Statistics, 2014–2019
• Chart 1— Number of fatally injured drivers from selected provinces, 2016–2019
• Chart 2— Self-reported awareness of impaired driving legislative changes
• Chart 3 — Rate of police-reported impaired driving, by substance causing impairment, Canada, 2009–2019
• Chart 4 — Rate of police-reported impaired driving causing death or bodily harm, Canada, 1986– 2019
• Chart 5 — Average elapsed time between when impaired driving incidents came to the attention of police and when these incidents were cleared, by substance causing impairment, Canada, 2009–2019
• Chart 6 — Median length of impaired driving cases in criminal courts, by substance causing impairment, Canada 2010/2011 to 2018/2019
• Chart 7 — Persons accused of alcohol-impaired driving (or impairment by a combination of alcohol and drugs), by age group, Canada, 2009 and 2019
• Chart 8 — Persons accused of drug-impaired driving, by age group, Canada, 2009 and 2019

List of abbreviations

ADSE

Approved drug screening equipment

AI

Approved instrument

AGC

Attorney General of Canada

BAC

Blood alcohol concentration

BDC

Blood drug concentration

CCS

Canadian Cannabis Survey (Health Canada)

DEC

Drug evaluation classification

DRE

Drug recognition expert

ICCS

Integrated Criminal Court Survey (Statistics Canada)

MAS

Mandatory alcohol screening

NCDB

National Collison Database (Transport Canada)

NCS

National Cannabis Survey (Statistics Canada)

NJS

National Justice Survey (Department of Justice public opinion survey)

SFST

Standardized field sobriety test

THC

Tetrahydrocannabinol (primary psychoactive component in cannabis)

UCR

Uniform Crime Reporting Survey (Statistics Canada)

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