In the News

Drunk-driving laws to hide penalties
By Rob Shaw and Lindsay Kines
Times Colonist
April 29, 2010

One of the consequences of B.C.'s new drunk driving laws is that many of the penalties will be imposed in secret, with no public record of the offence.

B.C.'s superintendent of motor vehicles confirmed yesterday that the new administrative penalties for impaired driving will not show up in any court records and are shielded from public scrutiny.

"When it comes to a person's driving record, that's considered personal and confidential," said superintendent Steve Martin.

The new rules give police discretion to slap first-time offenders with a 90-day driving ban and $500 fine if they fail a roadside sobriety test. They'd also have to participate in a responsible driver program and blow into an interlock ignition device before starting their cars for a year.

But unlike criminal charges for driving under the influence, the administrative penalties are not disclosed to the public because they do not generate a court file, said Martin. That means a member of the public would never know if their local mayor, MLA, daycare provider or child's school-bus driver had been fined or lost their licences for impaired driving.

Critics say that lack of transparency should worry the public.

But Andrew Murie, chief executive officer of Mothers Against Drunk Driving Canada, said while some first-time offenders may face less public scrutiny, the trade-off is worth it if it helps reduce impaired-driving injuries and deaths.

The beauty of B.C.'s new rules, he said, is they bypass the cumbersome court process and focus on rehabilitation. A first-time offender will still have to blow into an interlock device and get a handle on their drinking even if their name never makes the papers. "I am not so worried about the shaming part of it," Murie said. "I'm more concerned about, 'Will this person ever do this again?' Because I'll tell you, most of the people who kill out there, nobody's heard of them."

The government said the new rules are designed to let police focus charges on drivers who have been banned from driving in the past or have caused serious injury or death.

Drunk drivers will only get one chance to avoid criminal charges, said RCMP Insp. Ted Smith, head of Vancouver Island's traffic services.

"If we know somebody has been through the administrative sanctions once, we aren't going to cut them any slack ... we are going to throw the book at them," said Smith.

But B.C. Civil Liberties Association president Robert Holmes said the public should be skeptical of any disciplinary process that is done behind closed doors. "Anyone who is affected by this and wants to take their lumps and not have the public stigma would think keeping this private is a wonderful thing," said Holmes, a Vancouver lawyer.

"But in terms of our ability to ensure that the agents of the state, whether they are the police or anybody else ... are doing their job and doing it fairly, properly and so on, yes, there is a concern."