Quebec coroners push to align DUI rules with rest of Canada

If on the fateful morning of June 4, 2020, then-64-year-old Bernard D’Aragon had been riding his big BMW K1600 motorcycle in Ontario – or in any other Canadian province other than Quebec, for that matter – he would likely still be alive today. Unfortunately, he was riding in La Belle Province, the only province without any administrative penalty for driving with a blood-alcohol concentration between 50 milligrams and 80 mg per 100 millilitres (or, in the numbers most of us associate with impaired driving, a BAC between 0.05 and 0.08).

Sadly, that day, his trip down Highway 148 in Outaouais tragically crossed the path of a Jeep Wrangler driven by a man who in any other part of the country would have been pulled off the road.

That’s not conjecture: ask Coroner Geneviève Thériault, and this death could and should have been avoided. Her investigation report, published this week, discloses that one hour before the accident, the Jeep’s driver was arrested by the Sûreté du Québec for erratic driving, following up on a call from a witness. When the agents located the Jeep and asked the driver if he was operating his vehicle under the influence of alcohol, his “voice was hoarse and slurred, but he replied that he had not been drinking,” reads the report, which Driving has translated into English from French.

Still, smelling alcohol on the driver’s breath, the officers asked him to step to the back of the vehicle; he instead “walked straight ahead”. When he blew into a breathalyser test, the result came back as CAUTION. In numerical terms, that means his BAC was between 0.05 and 0.08.

“Since the test result did not confirm that the legal limit for driving a motor vehicle, set at 80 mg/100 ml, had been exceeded, the patrol officers… strongly advised him to call a friend and not to drive, or to go to a restaurant in Grenville and wait a few hours before driving again.”

Further analysis of the vehicle’s GPS shows the driver continued on his route and, one hour later, between Thurso and Papineauville, veered out of his lane; crossed the central double line at 90 km/h, the speed limit; and headed into a violent “face-à-face” collision with D’Aragon’s motorcycle. The rider flew into the ditch, where he died instantly.

Fourth coroner in two years to recommend amending DUI laws

All across Canada, the legal BAC limit for those operating a motor vehicle is 0.08. Once past this threshold, a driver can be prosecuted with criminal charges, with all the costs and consequences that entails. But, if the events preceding that June 2020 tragedy would have occurred in any other Canadian jurisdiction (except the Yukon), police officers would have had the legal tools to remove this impaired driver from the road, and Bernard D’Aragon would still be alive.

Coroner Thériault points out: “If administrative sanctions comparable to those existing elsewhere in the country had been in force in Quebec in 2020, patrolmen could have immediately suspended the driver’s license and seized the vehicle upon interception, which would have prevented the accident.”

She therefore recommends an amendment to the Code de la sécurité routière, to allow officers to impose immediate administrative sanctions against those caught driving with a BAC of at least 0.05. (Note that in Saskatchewan, the level is even lower, at 0.04). Thériault also advises the Ministère des Transports et de la Mobilité durable to support the Société de l’assurance de l’automobile du Québec (SAAQ) in its push for these changes.

Sadly, this is the fourth Quebec coroner report – the fourth! – in less than two years to advocate for said administrative penalties. Still, LaBelle Province government hasn’t bowed to pressure.

In justifying her refusal to bring Quebec into line with the 0.05 threshold that prevails in the rest of Canada (and that has so for more than 40 years, in the case of Ontario) Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault maintains, again and again, that Quebec is already the jurisdiction with some of the strictest laws when it comes to impaired driving.

Quebec’s DUI laws otherwise some of country’s strictest

Minister Guilbault is not wrong. It is true that Quebec is hits harder on repeat DUI offenders than anywhere else in the country (and in all of North America, for that matter). For example, Quebec is the only Canadian jurisdiction to impose an ignition interlock device for life on those caught driving under the influence more than once in a 10-year time-frame; in other provinces, more repeat offences are required, and the device generally sticks around for a maximum is 10 years.

It’s also true that of all the drivers who have died on Quebec roads in recent years that have been tested for alcoholic inebriation, only a very small number (on average 1.4%) had a BAC between 0.05 and 0.08. In fact – surprise, surprise – there were three-and-a-half times more drivers (5%) who died with a BAC of between 0.01 and 0.05.

Statistics Canada’s most recent data, from 2019, indicates that that year, Quebec saw a rate of 176 police-reported impaired driving incidents (alcohol and drugs) per 100,000 residents, the second lowest rate after Ontario (104 per 100,000 residents). Quebec and Ontario were in fact the only two Canadian provinces below the national average of 228 incidents per 100,000 residents.

Hence the Coalition Avenir Québec government’s resistance to the idea of embarking on major amendments to current regulations.

Changes to law could spare 20 victims per year

Still, more and more voices are rising up in Quebec for tougher drunk-driving penalties consistent with other provinces. The SAAQ is among them, and making some of the strongest arguments. Cross-referencing its own statistics with those of other Canadian provinces and with data on the effects of lowering the legal BAC driving limit worldwide, the provincial public insurer has concluded:

• introducing penalties for BACs of 50 mg or more would prevent three to nine deaths in Quebec each year caused by drinking and driving;
• the same penalties would also prevent about 10 serious injuries each year; and that
• “this BAC reduction would reduce compensation costs by $2.2 to $3 million a year.”

Note: In Quebec and in all other Canadian provinces, a driver can be arrested even if his alcohol level is below 0.08. A police officer may judge his faculties to be impaired—by alcohol, drugs, medication, even by a meal that doesn’t go down well. This driver can then be placed under arrest for this reason, or if they refuse to blow into a breathalyser or submit themself to movement-coordination tests requested by officers.