OPP starts mandatory alcohol screening at all Waterloo Region traffic stops
Be prepared to provide a breath sample if you’re stopped by OPP on a Waterloo Region highway.
On Thursday, OPP announced officers are now conducting Mandatory Alcohol Screening (MAS) during every traffic stop in the Greater Toronto Area.
The project includes Waterloo Region highways that are patrolled by the OPP’s Cambridge detachment, including Highway 7/8, Highway 85 and Highway 401, Sgt. Kerry Schmidt confirmed.
The OPP is calling the initiative its “toughest measures yet to reduce impaired driving.”
According to the force, impaired driving collisions and charges are up nearly 30 per cent compared to the previous five-year average.
Schmidt says it’s not always obvious when a driver has been drinking
“We've seen impaired drivers with not a lot of … breath smells out in the wind and the weather,” he told CP24.
“Now this takes away any bias, any situations. We're just going to be testing everybody.”
Drivers who refuse could be charged
Under Canada’s MAS law, introduced in 2018, police officers can demand a breath sample from drivers even if they don’t suspect they have drunk alcohol.
Schmidt says drivers that decline to do a breathalyzer test will face consequences.
“They refuse, it’s the same as failing. It’s a criminal offense of refusing to provide a breath sample.”
In Ontario, drivers with the full G license must have less than 0.05% blood alcohol concentration. The warn range is 0.05 to 0.079, with impaired considered 0.08 or more.
There is a zero tolerance policy for any drivers age 21 or under, any drivers with a G1, G2, M1 or M2 license and commercial vehicle operators.
'This is an unjustified power,' says CCLA
Drivers who spoke to CTV News at the Cambridge OnRoute on Thursday had mixed feelings about the new initiative, with some saying it feels like an invasion of privacy.
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) has similar concerns.
“This is an unjustified power to intrude into someone's life without any suspicion they have done something wrong,” said Shakir Rahim, director of CCLA’s criminal justice program.
Rahim says the CCLA does not believe mandatory alcohol screening will lead to less drunk driving.
He also disagrees with the OPP assertion that screening everyone removes any bias.
“We already know that if you look at who is stopped by the police on the road, disproportionately those individuals come from racialized communities. So the impact of this practice is going to fall most heavily on communities that are already over-policed,” Rahim said.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
House of Commons Speaker Greg Fergus survives vote calling for his ouster
Greg Fergus survived a vote to oust him as House of Commons Speaker on Tuesday, but with close to half of MPs expressing a loss of confidence in him, he faces a precarious path forward in maintaining order in Parliament.
'It was hell': Israeli mother held hostage with her children describes 51 days in captivity
Hagar Brodutch, her three children and four-year-old neighbour were kidnapped by Hamas-led militants from their home in Kfar Aza, Israel on Oct. 7 and held for 51 days. They were released in November, but Brodutch says her thoughts are never far from those still being held in Gaza.
'Unruly passenger' forces WestJet flight to make emergency landing in B.C.
A WestJet flight heading to Calgary had to make an emergency landing in northern B.C. Monday due to an incident involving an 'unruly passenger,' Mounties say.
P.E.I. kiteboarder 'lucky to be alive' after shark attack in Turks and Caicos
A professional kiteboarder from P.E.I. says he has been seriously injured in a shark attack that occurred while he was snorkelling in the Turks and Caicos Islands last week.
Teen dies after being hit by train in N.W. Calgary
A teenager has died after being hit by a train in northwest Calgary on Tuesday afternoon.
Black bear kebabs make family sick with parasitic worms
It was supposed to be a celebration, but one family’s unique meal of black bear meat sent several members to the hospital instead.
'It's his vacation too': Jimmy the baby goat joins 2-week road trip across Canada
After Jimmy the baby goat was shunned by his mother, a New Brunswick man took the kid on a two-week road trip across Canada.
The double-level airplane seat is back. This time, there’s a first-class version
It’s the airplane seat design that launched a thousand memes and kickstarted a media storm. And now the double-level seat is back – only this time, with a twist.
New COVID-19 subvariants become the dominant strains in Canada
More than four years after COVID-19 effectively shut down the world, two new variants of COVID-19 have become the dominant strains of the novel coronavirus in Canada.