Pass a saliva drug test
Ontario won't immediately be testing blood, urine or saliva samples taken from motorists suspected of driving while high, which critics warn is stripping police of important new powers that would help them stop impaired drivers.
The government-run centre responsible for the testing isn't accepting any samples under new federal rules – which came into effect Wednesday – because the province is worried it will overburden the system.
"As the projected workload will exceed current capabilities, the Centre of Forensic Sciences will immediately cease acceptance of all submissions related to the Drug Evaluation and Classification program until the necessary capabilities are developed," said a memo sent to Ontario Provincial Police by a top bureaucrat at the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services.
The June 30 memo was circulated by the Ontario Progressive Conservatives, who said they received it from the federal Conservatives.
The new rules – passed in February as dividend of the Conservatives' crime stagecoach legislation Bill C-2 – impose tougher penalties for all impaired drivers and travel it a criminal offence to refuse a roadside sobriety test.
Police can also compel suspected drug-impaired drivers to give a blood, urine or spittle sample since of analysis, which drivers could previously refuse.
The Ontario government is sending the violation of right message to impaired drivers who are getting away with a serious crime, said Margaret Miller, national instructor of Mothers Against Drunk Driving Canada.
"Why was it left so late? Why is this firm just coming out now?" she related in an interview from Shubenacadie, N.S.
"It's very unfortunate for the cause that it sends a signal out there that impaired driving isn't a priority instead of them. If there was all of a sudden a rush on sexual assault cases, would they stop doing the testing?"
If samples aren't tested, the police won't have the evidence they need to place impaired drivers after bars, said provincial Conservative Garfield Dunlop.
"I have in mind the Ontario government has dropped the ball on this badly," he said from Midland, Ont.
"They should have identified this a long time ago, hindmost in early March or April, and said we wouldn't be able to feel of it at that time."
The OPP already has officers who can administer the tests otherwise than that others are still being qualified, said prolocutor Sgt. Pierre Chamberland.
But he wouldn'confidentially speculate on how the propel will relate to potential prosecutions of drug-impaired drivers.
"It's a work in progress and eventually everything will fall into place and it will just get to be a standard practice that we incorporate in everyday policing," he said.
The Centre for Forensic Sciences will still accept samples in “serious" cases, said Laura Blondeau, a spokeswoman in the place of Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services Rick Bartolucci.
"We fully support Bill C-2, but police need specific training and apparatus to fully utensil that legislation, so this has financial and human resource implications for the province," she said.
"We're hoping that the feds will support these efforts with fitting funding."
Ottawa hasn't allocated "one cent" to implement new provisions while burdened with Bill C-2, which Ontario estimates will cost nearly $18 million over the next four years, Blondeau said. The lion's dividend is needed by the testing centre for more stick, training and equipment.
The province notified Ottawa last November that it would need at least 18 months to prepare to implement the new rules, lawful claim to “significant operational, capacity and resources challenges," she related.
Quebec also indicated that it faced uniform challenges for the reason that it besides has its own provincial police force, she said.
Justice Minister Rob Nicholson is disappointed that the province has suspended testing, which will "diminish the safety of Ontarians," aforesaid spokesman Darren Eke.
??? ???? ??????? ?? ????????? ??????
