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Impaired Drivers – Follow the Money Trail
by Calvin Lawrence, Retired RCMP Officer.
Editor: This article was first published on Facebook
Saturday 17 August 2024
Removing impaired drivers from our roads is an ongoing process.
The courts have implemented cars with breathalyzers, and educational courses, and now we as a society want to hold others responsible. (Hosts of functions where alcohol is served.)
The police have now removed “reasonable and probable “ grounds to give drivers a breathalyzer test. Just recently the police could come to your door and demand a breathalyzer test by a certain time frame.
Society expects us to drink and drive. Why else would there be parking lots built for drinking establishments?
Now Quebec is establishing 24 hour bars and Ontario is putting alcohol in corner stores.
Society may get more answers as to why we continue to have the problem of impaired driving by following the money trail.
The police officer is in court testifying and receives overtime pay,
the government through the courts imposing fines,
the increase insurance costs incurred by the accused,
the auto body repair shops, defence lawyer’s fees,
installing apparatus in vehicles to detect if the driver is impaired, business advertising in MADD magazine etc.
All make money from the impaired driver. If someone is killed even the funeral home makes money. (Don’t forget to include the tax.)
Impaired driving is a money making industry.
A major solution to the drinking and driving problem is forfeiting the driven vehicle to the crown upon conviction. There would have to be a faint hope close where application could be made to have the vehicle returned if the driver was not the owner. However , there would be a hefty fine levied. EG: loaned, rental or commercial vehicle.)
The incidents of multiple convictions of an individual would be reduced.
How many impaired drivers would be in a position to have three or four cars seized? No one would lend or rent a vehicle, or employ that person as a driver, after the first offence.
I doubt that an impaired driver could afford to purchase three or four cars after each conviction and the vehicle was seized.
We as a society are now entering an age where other drugs as well as alcohol are being consumed and people are driving high. The case law in the criminal code demonstrates overwhelmingly that there is a good chance that an impaired driver using alcohol will be acquitted. The use of other drugs is not even detectable in most cases. They have so called detection experts to detect drug impairment. That sounds good until tested in a court of law.
If a deer or moose is shot out of season or without a permit there is a possibility that the vehicle would be forfeited to the crown upon conviction. The least we can do is apply the same law to a human being.
Until real solutions are found and real issues are addressed; the loss of life due to impaired driving is just the cost of doing business to make money.
Social justice advocate Calvin Lawrence served as an officer with the Halifax City Police Department for 8 years and with the RCMP for 28 years, before his retirement in 2006. He is the author of the acclaimed “Black Cop”. Calvin Lawrence [email protected].
Back in the day…there was no OT. May have been on the books but Detachment NCO’s preferred “other arrangements”. This preserved their OT budgets for other work. The only money I made was my salary. As a breath tech… not being called in for tests and not attending court on rto, was preferable, to money.
Cal, I left this out….is the intent for everyone to make money off impaired driving, or is it a consequence? Big difference! Great piece though Cal. Keep writing, you’ve got a talent for it.
Best regards, Dave