A history of impaired driving laws.

• Author: Olsen, Erin
• Position: Criminal law

The festive season always brings reminders from media, business, police and friends of a message almost everyone is familiar with now: DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE!

Parliament created the first criminal offence of driving while intoxicated in 1921. It is interesting to note that, in 1914, Ford was only producing 27 Model T cars each day (9855 per year). There were not very many cars on the road, and probably not many roads (at least not the way we think of roads), at the time driving while intoxicated became a criminal offence! Indeed, technology at the time hardly extended beyond the telephone and a few typewriters.

The penalties for driving while intoxicated were inflexible, to say the least. The penalty for a first offence was minimum 7 days and maximum 30 days in jail. For a second offence, the minimum was 30 days and the maximum was 3 months. For any offence after that, the intoxicated driver would serve a minimum of 3 months and a maximum of one year.

In 1951, Parliament created an additional offence of driving while impaired by alcohol or a drug. The penalties for this offence were lower than for driving while intoxicated.

In 1969, Parliament made major changes to the Criminal Code of Canada. It repealed the 1921 offence of driving while intoxicated, but retained the offence of driving while impaired by alcohol or a drug. Parliament also created two new offences, blood alcohol exceeding 80 mg.% ("over 80") and refusal to provide a breath sample.

In 1985, legislators saw fit to add the offences of impaired driving causing bodily harm or death. Previously, an impaired driver who injured someone or caused their death had to be prosecuted for criminal negligence or manslaughter if the prosecutor wanted to seek significant jail time. Also in 1985, the maximum penalty for impaired driving causing death was set at 14 years in jail, and for impaired driving causing bodily harm, it was set at 10 years in jail.

Nowadays, police have access to sophisticated scientific instruments to screen the breath of potential impaired drivers stopped at the roadside, and then to take a sample of that person's breath for analysis back at the police station. They have access to scientists and medical professionals who can provide expert opinions about the effect of drinking alcohol on the ability to drive. Canada is looking at authorizing the police to routinely take blood samples from drivers in impaired by drug cases. This is quite the evolution from the 1920s...