User:Steve Smith/Impaired driving law in Canada

Impaired driving law in Canada is created by both federal and provincial governments.

Impaired driving and division of powers
The Constitution Act, 1867 gives the federal Parliament responsibility for criminal law, and responsibility for "property and civil rights", which has been found to include the licensing of drivers, to the provincial legislatures. Accordingly, the Criminal Code of Canada, a federal statute, creates certain impaired driving offences, while all provinces have adopted their own system of driver's license suspensions for impaired drivers.

Criminal offences
The Criminal Code of Canada creates three basic offences related to impaired driving: first, it is a criminal offence to operate or be in care and control of a motor vehicle while one's ability to drive is impaired by alcohol, drugs, or a combination of drugs and alcohol. Second, it is a criminal offence to drive or be in care and control of a motor vehicle while the concentration of alcohol in one's blood exceeds 80 milligrams of alcohol in one hundred millilitres of blood. Third, it is a criminal offence to refuse a valid demand for samples of one's bodily fluids (breath, blood, urine, or oral fluid), or to refuse a valid demand to perform physical coordination tests, to determine whether either or both of the other two offences is being committed.

Each of these three predicate offences also has a "causing death" variant and a "causing bodily harm variant". Thus, for example, it is a separate offence to cause bodily harm to another person as a result of driving while impaired. With respect to the charge of refusing a valid demand, the elements of the aggravated offence are the knowledge on the part of the person refusing the demand ("knows or ought to know") that the driving giving rise to the demand caused bodily harm or death.

Punishment
The three predicate offences are hybrid offences, while the aggravated offences of causing bodily harm or death are indictable offences. In the case of the predicate offences, the maximum punishment where the Crown prosecutes by summary conviction is eighteen months imprisonment; if the Crown proceeds by indictment, the maximum penalty is five years imprisonment. The minimum penalty is a $1,000 fine for a first offence, 30 days imprisonment for a second offence, and 120 days imprisonment for a third or subsequent offence.

In addition, the Criminal Code provides for court-ordered prohibitions on the operation of motor vehicles: between one and three years for a first offence, between two and five years for a second offence, and at least three years (with no maximum) for a third or subsequent offence. Additionally, these prohibitions do not begin until all prison time has been served; thus, the de facto length of a prohibition is increased by the duration of any prison sentence.

However, all but the first portion of these prohibitions can generally (and at the courts' discretion) be circumvented by the installation of an ignition interlock device in the driver's vehicle; while it is the federal Parliament that allows for this exemption, it is the provincial governments that implement and administer ignition interlock programs, and their availability and eligibility criteria vary by province. The minimum absolute prohibitions (during which a person may not drive even with an ignition interlock device) is three months for a first offence, six months for a second offence, and twelve months for a third or subsequent offence.