MADD Canada’s Request of Candidates in the 2008 Federal Election

Impaired driving remains the number one criminal cause of death in Canada and since the late 1990’s progress has stalled. Given the seriousness of impaired driving, and the fact that far too many Canadians continue to be killed or injured as a result of people who drink and drive, MADD Canada is calling on all federally elected representatives to make fighting impaired driving a priority justice issue in the next Parliament.

The last Parliament saw real progress in the fight against impaired driving with the passage of new laws relating to drug-impaired driving (Bill C-2) and the elimination of conditional sentences for violent impaired driving crimes (Bill C-9). MADD Canada was very pleased with the significant measures passed within Bill C-2 granting police authority to obtain a breath sample of motorists at a fatal crash scene, and narrowing of evidence to the contrary provisions.

Still, the crime needs to be addressed in a comprehensive fashion in order to significantly reduce the incidents of impaired driving. We would like to see the next Federal Government set impaired driving initiatives as a priority and actively pursue a focused effort to reduce the needless victims who are killed or injured as a result of impaired driving. MADD Canada supporters across the country want a commitment made by our federal politicians to act on two specific initiatives:    

• Complete a comprehensive review of Canada’s impaired driving laws to determine the most effective countermeasures to drive down deaths and injuries. This work has been started by the Justice Committee and MADD Canada calls for the Justice Minister and Parliament to receive the Committee’s report and pass any recommended legislation.
• Provide the framework for a national dialogue and lead a forum with provincial governments and national stakeholders on the most effective means to achieve lower incident rates of impaired driving deaths and injuries.

The human lives lost, the tremendous health and social costs, and the innocent victims of these 100% preventable crimes, all point to the urgent need for impaired driving to be a focus of the Government’s mandate. MADD members and supporters ask that all candidates running in this federal election to consider and support these requests for attention in the next federal Parliament.

For further information, visit www.madd.ca or call:

Margaret Miller, National President
(902) 758-5328

Andrew Murie, Chief Executive Officer
1-800-665-6233, ext. 224

Also see...

• Call for impaired driving to be priority in next Parliament