January 2020

Moving forward, every single driver stopped by police in Calgary can expect to blow a breathalyzer test.

Since December 2018, police in Canada have been able to demand preliminary samples without reasonable suspicion that drivers have alcohol in their bodies.

Calgary police have taken more than 15,600 samples since the force started mandatory checks more than a year ago. Those have resulted in 142 Criminal Code charges and 359 provincial sanctions.

…

“Knowing that there have been constitutional challenges filed in this country, to that law, its very brazen and I am surprised to see it,” Vancouver-based impaired driving lawyer Kyla Lee said.

Kyla Lee is a criminal defense lawyer with Acumen Law and she suggests that anyone driving a Lyft or Uber vehicle who gets a ticket, should absolutely dispute.

Listen here.

Kyla Lee says @Uber will be unsuccessful in their injunction to stop Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum’s plan to ticket Uber drivers.

Watch here.

Police say all drivers in Calgary can expect a breath test if they are pulled over or go through a checkstop — an approach an anti-drunk-driving group wants forces elsewhere to follow, but one that defence lawyers warn is rife with constitutional pitfalls.

Since December 2018, when new federal impaired driving legislation took effect, police in Canada have been able to demand preliminary roadside samples without reasonable suspicion that drivers have been drinking.

…

Kyla Lee, a Vancouver-based impaired driving lawyer, said rights to counsel and to be free from arbitrary detention are also at issue.

Lee said she’s not aware of any other police departments touting stepped-up mandatory alcohol testing measures.

“Knowing that there have been several constitutional challenges filed in this country to that law, it’s very brazen and I am surprised to see it.”

Read more here.

An Uber driver suggests he was lured into picking up a customer in Surrey only to find bylaw officers instead.

As the driver was waiting for his passenger at a liquor store, he says six bylaw officers approached his car at 74th Avenue and King George Boulevard.

…

Lawyer Kyla Lee explains there’s an exception that’s allowing Uber drivers to be targeted.

“Any officer who has stopped the driver of a vehicle can demand the driver produce identification so that is how they are getting around it,” he says. “They wouldn’t otherwise have that power to require identification in a bylaw case.”

Some other cities have the same exceptions but Lee says this is an unprecedented use of those powers.

“It opens the doors for charter challenges for the information that was obtained,” Lee says. “For people to say this was an abuse of power, the bylaw goes too far.”

She says drivers could challenge it as a privacy violation, but believes the court would probably side with the city.

Read more here.