(Mandatory screening) is not minimally impairing…these stops and these mandatory alcohol screening demands are not rationally connected with the objective of stopping impaired drivers

Jennifer Teryn, Lawyer

“A 76-year-old woman in B.C. has launched a Charter challenge against a new law that allows Canadian police to demand a roadside breath test without needing any suspicion the driver has been drinking.

Norma McLeod was driving out of a Victoria, B.C., liquor store parking lot just after 9:30 a.m. on Feb. 14 when a police officer pulled her over and demanded she provide a breath test. According to the officer’s own report, he was staking out the liquor store and conducting breath tests on anyone who exited.

The details of the incident appear to confirm the fears of critics of mandatory alcohol screening: that police would use the new powers to arbitrarily target drivers.”

Brian Platt, National Post

Full article available on NationalPost.com.