Canadian Impaired Driving Laws
Back On Track – Homework
The other day, I wrote about attending the “Assessment” portion of Ontario’s Remedial Back On Track program. I noted that I was provided a book along with some homework to complete prior to the Educational part of the Back On Track program, which is a requirement for all drivers in Ontario that have been convicted of an alcohol related driving offense.
I should point out first that the facilitator that I met with made it clear that there was no expectation that participants in the Back On Track program give up alcohol use completely. Rather, the aim is to educate about responsibility and risk. If a participant wishes to completely abstain from alcohol, that is fine but abstinence is not required nor expected.
Before my education class, there are several activities I must do and it is compulsory. Failure to do them may result in a fail for the program and forfeiture of the fee that I have paid, which is about $600.00 including HST. One of the tasks I must complete is to keep a daily log of my alcohol consumption. This log includes the type of drink (wine, beer, hard liquor) as well as any non-prescribed drugs. I must record how many drinks I had according to a standardized measurement (1 12 oz. beer = 1 drink, 5 oz (142 ml) wine = 1 drink) each day, who I was with, my mood that day, and whether I would have been a risk under the circumstances for driving impaired.
The next assignments include the “Education Program Participant Workbook 2nd Edition” that comes with the Back On Track program. I am required to complete page 4 of the workbook which consists of a dozen statements which are either true or false; read pages 17 to 21 which basically consist of information about the health effects of long term heavy drinking and then complete the exercises on pages 22 through 24 – a personal evaluation; read pages 41-42 followed by an exercise about the costs of impaired driving to me; and finally, to read pages 59, 60, 61, 65 & 66 which is a section on setting goals in regard to alcohol use.
None of the homework is terribly difficult, and will be simple enough to complete.
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Back On Track Assessment
As required under Ontario Provincial legislation in order for me to apply for my driver’s license reinstatement, I recently attended the “assessment” portion of the Back On Track program. Part of the requirement is that you cannot drink 24 hours prior to any Back On Track meeting, including the assessment, education or treatment classes. With virtually no information as to what occurs during the Assessment meeting, I was quite nervous beforehand. I had not consumed any alcohol in about 3 full days but how would they know? Blood tests? Urine test? Actually there was no test, so it’s basically on the honour system.
The assessment meeting is where the driver convicted of an alcohol related driving offence in Ontario meets with a facilitator of the Back On Track program. The purpose of it is to determine whether the convicted person needs alcohol education or alcohol treatment. This is done by asking a series of questions. In my case, I was told that I only needed to participate in the education class, a 9 hour classroom session next month.
Some of the questions that are asked are extremely ambiguous. Some are even odd. Questions along the lines of:
“Can you like a person that is witty and humorous but who sometimes hurts other people’s feelings?”
“Do you speed up for yellow lights?”
“Does your hand ever shake?”
“Have you ever had to seek emergency medical help in the past 12 months for an accident?”
“Do you have trouble sometimes falling asleep or do you wake up during your sleep?”
There were of course questions about the use of both alcohol and drugs; how much on a weekly or daily basis is alcohol consumed and whether or not you use sleeping pills, tranquilizers or other drugs. Information about annual income was also requested apparently for statistical purposes.
I had to admit I had problems answering some of the questions as they were far to general in nature, and the meaning of them did not seem precise. I was told by the facilitator that there are plans in the works to revamp the whole assessment process including the questions that are asked. Apparently, some people who’s first language is not English have problems understanding and answering the questions.
The entire interview process lasted just under an hour. The interviewer was friendly and there were no lectures given. As each question was asked, my answer was inputted into a computer program, and at the end of the questions, some of which were of a “True or False” format, the computer program determined whether or not I required the treatment portion of the Back On Track program or just the education.
I am scheduled to attend the 9 hour education portion next month, and apparently 6 months later, there will be a final evaluation done with me over the phone.
I was also given a book to read along with some “homework” to be completed before the alcohol education class. I’ll write more about the book and homework in a later post.
British Columbia Introduces Stricter Alcohol Penalties
On September 20, 2010, the CBC Television news was on the streets in British Columbia asking folk if they knew how many alcoholic drinks it took to reach a blood alcohol concentration of 0.05. No one knew. Some guessed it might be one drink, others thought perhaps two.
The fact of course is that there are so many different variables that it is impossible to say how many drinks it will take to reach a specific BAC. Of course, for years it’s been thought that it’s safe to consume one alcoholic drink an hour and stay under the Canadian Criminal Code level of 0.08, but even that rule of thumb is not assured.
This is very important to British Columbians who’s government has now enacted even stricter BAC levels for drivers in that Province of Canada. Although a driver may not be charged criminally (unless there are obvious signs of impairment, and then an Impaired Driving criminal charge could be laid), the Province is providing DUI penalties for those found to have a BAC of between 0.05 and 0.08 while driving.
The new British Columbia law provides for harsh penalties for those drivers which include an automatic 3 day suspension, a 3 day vehicle impoundment and $400.00 in fines and legal fees.
So if you’ve had a drink, how do you know if you’ve reached or exceeded the 0.05 BAC? Although it will cost you a wee bit of money, in the long run it could save you a ton of money in time, insurance premiums and legal fees by having your own personal breathalyzer.
British Columbia is also bringing in even tougher penalties above beyond Criminal Code penalties for drivers that are 0.08 and above. As of September 21, 2010, drivers in that Province that drive with a BAC of 0.08 or higher will: