Prepare to give a roadside breath sample, Yukon RCMP warns

The Yukon RCMP says it will be asking a lot more Yukoners to give roadside breath samples, after federal changes to alcohol-impaired driving law kick in next week.

"The holiday season is coming, we're likely to be running those stop-checks at the side of the road. A lot more people will be asked to blow in the approved screening device," said RCMP Staff Sgt. Jane Boissonneault.

Starting on Tuesday, police can demand that drivers submit to roadside alcohol screening tests if they've violated traffic laws — by speeding or blowing through a stop sign, for instance — or if they have been stopped during a random roadside sobriety testing program. Drivers blowing over the legal limit give police probable grounds to require follow-up tests that could produce results leading to criminal charges.

"It will make it just that much simpler for us to demand that breath sample, at the side of the road," Boissonneault said. "In the past, we had to either smell liquor or have an admission."

Refusing to give a breath sample means you could be found guilty of a criminal offence and be fined a minimum $2,000 or lose your licence for a year, says Leo Lane of the Public Prosecution Service of Canada in Whitehorse.

"It's a screening sample only, so it's done at the side of the road. It can't be used as evidence in court to get a criminal conviction. It just gives the officer the legal grounds to then take you to the police station and demand the full breath sample," Lane said.

The federal government has said it expects the new law will face constitutional challenges in court. Lane says courts may find that it is an infringement on people's Charter rights, but that it is justified.

"No Charter right is absolute. Charter rights are subject to reasonable limits in a free and democratic society," Lane said.

"And we think that this is a fair trade-off — that Canadians will be willing to give up some of their freedoms on the road, if it means that everybody can get where they need to be, safely."

Staff Sgt. Boissonneault expects officers will have to do "some on-the-spot education" to explain the new law to drivers who are pulled over. 

"Some people who like to think they can get away with drinking and driving probably won't like it as much," she said.

"I can understand that people might have a little bit of resentment if they're delayed a few minutes, but in the bigger picture, we're trying to keep the roads safe for everybody."