Security Marijuana (Cannabis)

Make new, stronger laws to punish more severely those who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana (cannabis).

Liberal Platform Page 55 October 5, 2015
Achieved
Jun 2018

Impaired Driving Laws

Department of Justice June 21, 2018

On April 13, 2017, the Government of Canada introduced Bill C-46, the most comprehensive reform to the Criminal Code transportation regime in more than 40 years. The Bill passed Parliament on June 20, 2018 and received Royal Assent on June 21, 2018. The new law is a modern, simplified, and more coherent system of reforms to better deter and detect drug and alcohol-impaired driving.

The elements of the legislation related to drug-impaired driving came into force on Royal Assent, June 21, 2018. The legislation authorizes police to use additional tools, such as roadside oral fluid drug screeners, enacts new driving offences of being over a prohibited blood drug concentration, and allows for blood samples to be collected without first requiring a driver to undergo a drug recognition evaluation. It also gives authority for the Governor in Council to make regulations setting the levels for various impairing drugs and these regulations came into force on June 26, 2018.

Click here for more info on Bill C-46 (which has received Royal Assent as of June 2018).

Apr 2017

Trudeau government introduces sweeping changes to impaired driving laws

CBC News April 13, 2017

Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould introduced major changes to the country's impaired driving laws Thursday, including provisions that will allow for mandatory roadside alcohol screening and new criminal offences for driving while high.

The legislation, introduced concurrently with the government's cannabis legalization bill, will allow police to demand a driver provide an "oral fluid sample" - saliva - if they suspect a driver is drug impaired. A positive reading could lead to further testing, including a blood test, to determine whether a criminal offence has been committed.

"This bill, if its passes, will be one of strongest impaired-driving pieces of legislation in the world and I'm very proud of that," Wilson-Raybould added.