In The News

Roadside drug testing hits roadblock in Canada

It’s been a little over a year since the first roadside drug testing devices hit the streets. And Draeger Safety Canada, the company that makes the one of two used in Canada, is declaring it an unqualified success.

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Kyla Lee got together with a number of experts – a former cop, a pharmacist, and a toxicologist – to perform her own study. One subject tested positive for opiates after eating poppy seeds. Another subject tested positive for THC after taking some lab-tested CBD oil.

The Draeger is one of two devices approved for roadside tests in Canada. The other, known as the Abbott SoToxa, is “arguably more accurate,” says Lee. But it also comes with its own set of problems. The device is meant to be used while resting on a flat surface.

Vancouver criminal lawyer Kyla Lee talks about her long battle with an eating disorder and what prompted her to get help.

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Kyla Lee, a voice you’ve heard on this station time and time again on various law related issues.

Today, Kyla presents something very different. Her journey with an eating disorder.

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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.

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“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.

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

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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.

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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.”

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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.

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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.

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Kyla Lee joins the Jeff Andreas Show to discuss Uber and Lyft finally in the Lower Mainland and any issues she can foresee from a driving lawyer’s perspective.

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Where do you keep your phone when you drive?  For real, where is it?  That’s where the plug in is, and so it sits on my centre console.  Apparently that’s a no no given what has been happening with folks being ticketed for having their phones within reach.  Kyla Lee joins us on the line on yet another OVERTURNED ticket for having a cell phone in a cup holder.

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