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
Trump confronts repeated boos during raucous Libertarian convention speech
Donald Trump was booed repeatedly while addressing Saturday night’s Libertarian Party National Convention.
No sign Canada has a plan to reach NATO defence spending target: U.S. NATO ambassador
The U.S. ambassador to NATO says she has seen no indication that Canada has a plan to reach the NATO spending target of two per cent of GDP on defence.
This type of screen time has the worst effect on kids: experts
According to some experts, there is one type of screen time that is continuously excessive, and it's having a severe effect on our children.
Family of toddler found dead at small-town Ont. daycare no closer to answers after year of investigation
A year has passed since two-year-old Vienna Irwin was found on the property of a home-based daycare in small-town Ontario, but her family says they are no closer to answers of what happened that day.
Fire at a baby care centre kills 7 infants in India's capital, a fire officer says
A fire broke out in a baby care center in India's capital Saturday night, killing seven infants, a fire service officer said.
More seniors are using homeless shelters. Here's why, according to experts
One of the country’s homeless shelters has seen an uptick in the number of people through its doors, including more older adults over 50.
Grayson Murray, two-time PGA Tour winner, dead at 30
Two-time PGA Tour winner Grayson Murray died Saturday morning at age 30, one day after he withdrew from the Charles Schwab Cup Challenge at Colonial.
Man or machine? Toronto company finds a way to determine how real audio clips are
The Toronto-based research arm of life sciences technology firm Klick Health has found a way to analyze voices in a manner that’s so granular, it can tell whether it's a person or an artificial intelligence-powered machine.
Humboldt Broncos crash victims and families react to decision to deport truck driver
The family of one of the victims of the Humboldt Broncos bus crash in 2018 says they are 'thankful' for a decision by a Calgary immigration board to deport the driver of the truck involved.