I was just going to say, if I don't take up the full seven minutes, I'm happy to delegate some time to Mr. Mendicino.
I'm going to take you right to the heart of what I think some of the controversy relates to, and that is the issue of random testing.
This bill brings into conflict or into the discussion two very important currents of thought. One is the level of condemnation of drunk driving offences, which is probably akin to other forms of homicide or racially motivated crimes. It's very high in the minds of the public. Then, of course, our civil liberties, procedural rights, and charter rights....
I'm going to put to you the idea that the very concept of randomness is misplaced here because the human mind rarely, if at all, does anything randomly. So, when we talk about randomness, are we talking about randomness from the perspective of the motorist who or may or may not be caught in a traffic stop or from the perspective of the police officer who has, in my view, full discretion under this bill to decide whether to apply the breath test to somebody or not?
It isn't just racial minorities, I would put to you, who are potentially negatively impacted. It could be old people, young people, women, or people driving pickup trucks. There's all sorts of room for discretion on the part of the officer when she decides whether or not to apply the test. The only way to truly randomize that decision is for her to punch the licence plate into a computer, and the computer, on a binary random selection, spits out a yes or a no to apply the breath test.
I think we're outside of the domain of randomness, and I wanted to ask you if you agree with that, and if we are, if that strengthens the argument—presumably, it does—in terms of not following through with this provision. But if we left randomness in, you'll in see in 320.27(3), it is really only the title of that paragraph that says “random testing”.
Would the bill, as it's currently framed, lead to the possibility of a non-randomness defence? In other words, if somebody was pulled over by an officer and then some research reveals that, yes, she does pull over everybody who drives a pickup truck but not anybody else, would that, in your mind, lead to an avenue of criminal defence that really is an unexpected consequence of the bill?
The second question, time permitting, is to take a broader look at the principles that we're expounding here and let us know your views on how they may or may not apply to the question of legalization of marijuana. In terms of resources of committee time, we're working here on a bill that may well be a forerunner to questions that arise on legalization. We want to get it right, if possible, on both fronts, as early as possible.