Justice Minister MacKay wants to revamp impaired driving legislation

Minister of Justice Peter McKay. Photo from Wikipedia.

EDMONTON — “I can tell you I did numerous trials on impaired driving cases, first as a defense lawyer and then prosecuting cases,” said MacKay in an interview with the Canadian Press.

Currently, impaired driving causing death does not carry mandatory jail time as per Canadian law. In a report by Lorne Gunter of QMI Agency, nearly 60,000 Canadians go to court answering to impaired driving charges every year.

Only 75% or 45,000 of those are convicted. Annually, about 1,000 lives are taken by drunk driving incidents.

Current Minister of Justice Peter MacKay served as a lawyer in Nova Scotia before his appointment as minister. He did not go into the specifics of the pointed out that the Conservative government is thinking of reinventing the impaired driving laws in Canada’s Criminal Code.

“I recall vividly a judge making a statement in a trial that I was prosecuting to the accused that driving down the road while under the effect of drugs or alcohol is no different than pointing a gun at another human being,” MacKay said.