Justice committee  In our brief, we said that was one of the very good aspects of the bill. People who approach my firm after being charged would probably contest those charges much less often if they were able to drive right away after their conviction. I am not minimizing impaired driving, but if

Justice committee  I would like to add something if I may. The Quebec Bar intervened in R. v. St-Onge Lamoureux in 2012. At trial court, it presented expert evidence to show that there were 10 possible errors or manipulation errors related to the internal operation of the machine. I am not familia

Justice committee  Perhaps I can answer that question. I do not think the Quebec Bar is here today to examine the constitutionality of the bill. Trial judges and later on the justices of the Supreme Court of Canada will certainly have the opportunity to do that. The eminent Professor Hogg gave hi

Justice committee  No. Once a vehicle is stopped by the police, the system does not pose any problem, in the view of the Quebec Bar. In the opinion of the Quebec Bar, allowing a police officer to stop a vehicle without a valid reason or allowing them to use their discretionary power can lead to ab

Justice committee  That is hard for me to say because I have not necessarily read the same studies as you have. Let me paraphrase one the witnesses. As he said, for a police officer to be able to require a person to submit to screening, they must at least have reasonable grounds for suspicion. In

Justice committee  Yes and no. Let me explain. We at the Quebec Bar are not opposed to virtue. We are not opposed to reducing the scourge of impaired driving. We are simply saying that the measures taken by the legislator must respect the individual rights set out in the Constitution. I do not int

Justice committee  It is not difficult for a crown prosecutor to respect the criterion in section 253 of the present Criminal Code that allows a judge to convict someone for impaired driving once the judge is convinced that the person consumed alcohol and notes certain symptoms, which incidentally

Justice committee  I am not saying that people are being wrongly convicted, even though that is always a risk. In my opinion, however, the amendment proposed in the bill will increase the risk of that happening.

Justice committee  I mentioned profiling earlier, which can be either racial or demographic. In my opinion, giving police officers an ultimate discretionary power to stop anyone at any time can lead to completely abusive situations. For example, when a bar closes, there could be 20 or 30 people le

Justice committee  The second theme pertains to the modified offence of driving while impaired to any degree, the new mandatory screening power for police, and the new power allowing the police to take samples of bodily substances on the basis of suspicion alone. According to the Quebec Bar, the m

Justice committee  Good afternoon.