The short answers are yes, yes, and yes.
To go back to the beginning, on the DRE testing, while I am cognizant of Ms. Treacy's comments questioning the utility of videotaping things like the taking of blood pressure, pulse, and body temperature—some of the components involved in DRE testing—our position would be that there is a great deal of utility in having those items videotaped. I think part of Ms. Treacy's comment was to the effect that unless you knew what you were looking for in the videotape, how much good would it be? But that's the point. If you're an accused person in that circumstance and there is a videotape of the proceeding, then your defence counsel would have the ability to have somebody who knows what they are looking for observe the numerous and detailed steps undertaken by a drug recognition expert and assess whether or not the steps were followed—whether the procedures were done in the appropriate order and whether they were done with the appropriate protocols in place.
Indeed, one of our side concerns with this legislation is that there aren't regulations—at least that I've seen—that actually lay out the exact details of these things. They talk about training and manuals. We think those procedures should be enshrined in regulation, so there is cross-Canada consistency and a very detailed protocol, in or via regulation, that can be buttressed by a videotaped record.
Sure, you might not be able to see with great clarity the bloodshot eyes, but you can certainly see the physical things: how was the blood pressure taken; how was the pulse taken; how was the body temperature taken; and how long did it take to get those, and were there several attempts required to get a blood pressure reading? All those things would show up in videotape.
In relation to impairment, whether it's by alcohol or drugs, I've had occasion in my practice to see videotaped proceedings from police stations, or entrances into police stations or interview rooms, by persons accused of impaired driving. I can tell you these are extremely instructive in the vast majority of cases—in fact, I don't know if I've seen them in any other way. They were instructive in showing an accused person that they perhaps were in fact a little more impaired than they seem to have recalled they were. I think it would be helpful on the prosecution side more often than on the defence side.
Lastly, on the actual maintenance or testing of the videotape machines, I can't say our section was contemplating that specifically when we talked about the audiovisual record; we were talking more about roadside testing and DRE and/or sobriety testing in general at a station. The clearer and more in-depth the record, the better, from our perspective. So I doubt we would be against the process. Whether or not there are already sufficient records maintained, when the machines are actually formally being serviced by qualified people, I would have to leave an opinion on that to further discussion by the section or experts in the area.