Toronto-area drivers stopped by OPP will have to give breath sample

All drivers in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area who are pulled over by Ontario Provincial Police highway safety officers will now be asked to provide a breath sample — no matter what they're stopped for.

Officers will be conducting "mandatory alcohol screening" at every routine traffic stop as part of a new enforcement policy taking aim at drinking and driving, even if there is no reason to suspect a driver is impaired, the OPP said this week.

"The OPP have always had officers use their discretion as to when they want to conduct a mandatory alcohol screening as part of their regular patrols and investigations," Sgt. Kerry Schmidt said in an interview.

"Now ... when they stop a driver for any offence or for any investigation, they will also be including a mandatory alcohol screening demand, which is there to ensure the drivers are sober and they're not driving impaired."

The initiative is being praised by the country's leading anti-impaired driving advocacy organization, but is being criticized as unconstitutional by a national civil rights group.

It is illegal in Canada for a driver to operate a vehicle if impaired by alcohol, drugs or both. Drivers with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 per cent are considered impaired under the Criminal Code and subject to potential charges.

Mandatory alcohol screening isn't new — police officers across the country have had the ability to stop and test any driver for potential alcohol consumption without the need for reasonable suspicion since the federal government passed a law authorizing it in 2018. Under that law, any person who refuses to co-operate with the breathalyzer test could be charged with a criminal offence.

But the OPP says making drivers take a test at every traffic stop will help further deter impaired drivers and make roads safer amid a rising trend of impaired driving collisions and charges.

Schmidt said impaired driving charges are up almost 30 per cent so far this year compared to the average from the previous five years, and that 11,000 impaired driving charges were laid last year compared to 8,800 in 2019. Fifty-one people died in alcohol or drug related crashes last year across the province. 

The policy, which is already in place, won't involve an increase in drivers being pulled over, he said. Instead, people stopped for suspected speeding, distracted driving, seatbelt or other infractions will be asked to provide a breath sample as a matter of course.

"There is no bias. Everyone is being tested," Schmidt said. "It's fair for all motorists and there is ... no community or group that should feel that they are being targeted."

The policy will be implemented by officers operating out of OPP detachments in Toronto, Mississauga, Burlington, Cambridge, Aurora, Whitby, Niagara and Highway 407.

The move follows the lead of the RCMP in Saskatchewan, which began administering a breathalyzer test at every traffic stop in their jurisdiction on April 1st.

Steve Sullivan, CEO of MADD Canada, said his organization has pushed for an expansion of mandatory alcohol screening for years.