Bonjour à tous.
The report has been written in French, but I will speak in English.
I'm a scientist, and I work with a group of scientists who are essentially examining repeat offenders and the risk of people who have been arrested. I will speak about our concerns. Our data comes from Quebec, and essentially what I will be speaking about is the situation in Quebec.
First, I really want to thank you for the opportunity to speak in front of this committee. It's an honour. I will describe the situation as our team sees it and then give our recommendations.
One of the first things that strike us is the fact that the probability of being arrested when you're driving while intoxicated in Quebec is 1:500 to 1:2,000. That probability is extremely low, and I'll come back to that.
Secondly, as Robyn Robertson just spoke about, the probability of being convicted once you've been arrested is 50%. Now, what does that mean concretely? That means that if you have the means to hire a lawyer, you will do that. Given that the lawyer is paid by the hour, the more you can pay that individual, the more the individual will find faults in the procedure. The blood alcohol level will not be put into question, because right now those tests are quite reliable. What will be put into question is how the policeman has worked.
That has impact on the Quebec policemen. We would be blind not to think so. This means that if somebody who probably has a high blood alcohol level is driving a car that shows this person has means, most of the policemen will just turn their eyes away, because those are the folks who probably can afford a lawyer. The impact of that right now is that we have a two-tier justice system in this area. People who are comfortable probably don't get arrested, or if they do get arrested, they hire lawyers and get out, which means the poor folks are suddenly convicted.
Quebec has taken the extraordinary decision of making sure we have an assessment of those who are arrested, and we really commend la Société de l'assurance automobile for having done that. The idea behind that, and the idea of the Assemblée nationale, was to evaluate those who are arrested, evaluate the risk of recidivism in order to get those folks into treatment, getting the care they need, and getting them to change their behaviour to save lives.
That whole concept is exactly where Canada needs to go. However, when you look at the way the process is applied, the story is different. The story is that if you have a satisfactory evaluation, you are evaluated and you are not seen as having a risk. It still has cost you $4,000. If, on the other hand, you have a non-satisfactory evaluation, then the cost goes up to $7,000. These generally are poor folks. As a result, the concept was created so that we could get dangerous people off the roads. In fact, what we are seeing is people simply don't go to the assessment.
In our report you will see a paper that's currently under print—the first author is Tom Brown—and what we find is that the non-compliants, the people arrested who simply do not go to the assessment and drive without a licence, are the most severe cases. Since we're looking at them in our data bank, I can also tell you that those people are the poorest. As a result, what we know from the international literature is that anybody driving without a licence has a higher probability of having an accident.
So the end result right now is that the legislation in Canada is probably adequate, but the way it's applied has a consequence. We have the wealthy people driving, probably with high blood alcohol levels, and the reality is that your perception and your time of reaction is equivalent, be you rich or poor. That doesn't make a difference. So they are quite dangerous. On the other hand, you have the poor people who cannot afford to go through the process, and they are driving without a licence, increasing the risk.
What are our recommendations? You will soon have the translation of the report that was done by Jean-Marie De Koninck. The report is clear. It has very interesting recommendations, and our team thought that maybe we could point out some of those recommendations. But right now for this committee, we have five recommendations, given the research work we're doing. I'm essentially looking at what our work as scientists has taught us.
First, it's clear that we need to increase the probability of being arrested in Quebec and probably in Canada. The beliefs have to change. For beliefs to change, you have to have more surveillance or you have to do what France has done and other countries have done, and put in sensors so people will be watched. That's key. Unless we change that, we will have other results like we had in Quebec in 2006: people believe that they will not be arrested if they drive while intoxicated, and that's the first problem. Two thousand seven hundred people die in Canada because of road accidents, and about one-third are linked to alcohol.
The other thing we need to do is look at why the ratio of conviction is so low. Madame Robertson has spoken about that. We have spoken about that. It doesn't make sense that 50% of these folks get off.
The third thing we need to do is better understand recidivism. Our research—and you'll find the bibliography shows this--is one study. We can't generalize it. The work has to be redone with other teams.
What we're finding is that these people have no memory and these people have no executive function. What does that mean? It means that you have people who, for whatever reasons—either biological or because they drank so much—(a) cannot remember, and (b) think that if they do this then this is going to happen. That's executive function. So they get in their car, and they're not able to anticipate that if they do this then this is going to happen. That's exactly the winning cocktail for another case of recidivism.
We need to think of drunk driving, given the fact that now we're starting to understand the neuro-psychological limits of these people. We've seen them as wicked. If we want to change the fatalities on Canadian roads, we need to think of strategies that take into account who they really are, and not who we think they are. Of course, putting in ignition interlocks would be a winning strategy. Right now they have to pay for them, and as a result, they don't use them. We need to rethink our strategy if we want to be effective.
Finally, the other thing that is extremely important, which we do not speak about and which is out of this field, is controlling speed. In France, because they put sensors in, the rate of accidents involving alcohol has been reduced. When you're drunk, you take risks. The regular alcoholic, 50 years old, who knows he's an alcoholic, knows he's drunk, drives slowly, makes his stops, and is super prudent and doesn't get arrested. If you're drunk and you know that there are sensors around, you're still not crazy because you're drunk. You know that you can't take risks, because you're going to be caught. You know you can't speed, because you're going to be caught, and you're in a world where speed is forbidden.
Unless we work on speed and risk-taking on the roads as a Canadian priority, we won't be able to achieve our goal, which is essentially to increase the security of Canadians on our roads. That's essentially what our team has to convey to you.
Again, I was honoured to speak to you.