Justice committee  Mr. Yost will finish. The random breath testing and roadblocks are very important tools. Whether the random breath testing would be done at a provincial level or under the Criminal Code, it could be a very helpful tool for police, because then drivers would think that at any tim

Justice committee  At present the provincial governments can run programs of ignition interlock, so that where a person has committed a Criminal Code impaired driving offence, the province can tell them that as a condition of getting their provincial driving licence back they must have an ignition

Justice committee  It's randomized breath testing.

Justice committee  Randomized breath testing. So what is being spoken of is roving random breath tests. The police may have at the present time organized check stops, but they can only test when they have suspicion of alcohol in the body and they can use an approved screening device. The idea of th

Justice committee  With respect to random breath testing, as indicated in---

Justice committee  If I may, I'll speak to the breath tests. Greg may wish to speak to other points. Currently the police services throughout the country have the option to use tools that are within the Criminal Code. In respect of alcohol breath testing, they have the tool of the approved screeni

Justice committee  I'm not certain if they require their evidential equipment to be operated by what we would call a qualified technician. Again, I think you should be hearing from scientists from the alcohol test committee of the Canadian Society of Forensic Science, who can address that point str

Justice committee  It may be underutilized because of the fact that some people feel they don't want to spend the money or can't afford it. Other people may simply not want to have an interlock. Maybe Dr. Beirness could talk about the underutilization.

Justice committee  In 1999, at the recommendation of this committee, Parliament looked at amending the Criminal Code to take into account the fact that some provinces at the time were already using ignition interlock devices. Parliament began by saying that first offenders could have a reduction in

Justice committee  Mr. Chair, in answer to the question that has been posed, I would make this observation that has come to us from forensic scientists who work on the alcohol test committee, and that comes to us as well from police officers. That is this: if one were to believe from the number of

Justice committee  Well, no. I'm saying that 35% of all charges under subsection 253(b) are going to trial. So the ones that go to trial are the ones in which the defence, most of the time, is the two-drink defence. It's a significant number. It's in the thousands.

Justice committee  I think the easy and quick answer is no. That particular defence will still exist, because the crown prosecutor must show there was a voluntary consumption of alcohol. If they, as the defence, bring in evidence that vodka was slipped into some drink they had and that they were un

Justice committee  As worded, this motion would require that the certificate be prepared and filed.... If, for example, the breath technician were called to give live evidence--viva voce evidence--there's nothing in this amendment that contemplates that situation. Also, the amendment sets out that

Justice committee  To add to Mr. Yost's response, there was a case, I believe it was in the early 1990s, when St. Pierre went to the Supreme Court of Canada. It was a situation where the person said that the reading was different. It actually still would have been over 80, but it would have been di

Justice committee  If that's the committee's wish. He is here again and he could speak more to this.