Canada considering allowing random breathalyzer tests.

[CFH]

If this comes to fruition, police will be allowed to randomly test drivers, regardless of whether they are under suspicion of driving under the influence (as is the requirement for such testing right now).

I'm of two minds on this subject. First of all, I abhor drunk-driving and I think it should be subject to very strict punishment, particularly if it causes any damage to person or property. However, I do not like this as it is a blatant infringement on civil liberties and, as it says in the article, a "...violation of a person's right to protection against unreasonable search and seizure...".

I'm just curious to hear people thoughts on this, especially you American and Europeans. Apparently this practice is fairly common in Europe...

Random breathalyzer tests considered for Canada - News - MSN CA

[amat]

FUCK THAT! No fcking way! Yeah, just let cops do aaannnyyytthhiinng. WTF is this shit? No I would be against this this is a HUGE issue imo. A blatant violation of someone's personal privacy. No way, if a cop can't suspect you are drunk (which he only halfway has to do anyways) and you are so drunk that you are going to cause harm to other people on the roadways, then that cop is a dumbass. I would be so pissed if I rolled a stop sign and I got a fcking breathalyzer for it. I would probably get taken in for disorderly conduct at that point.

[Dizaster]

LOL funny that you guys are going off about this when it is the norm here..... I read once that with police speed camera/laser in America, and police car has to actually observe and suspect/judge that a car is possibly speeding before actually measuring there speed. Not sure if that is true, but here they are allowed to just point it in the direction of oncoming traffic and catch anyone speeding...... It's hard to think of this as impinging on our civil liberties (i.e. right to not have our speed measured unless we are suspected of speeding) as it's just the norm here...

Police are also allowed to pull you over for no reason at all.. I was pulled over a number of times when I was younger for which reason I maintain was that I was wearing a beanie.. Once at a set of lights, I had a police car parked 5 cars up from me in another lane.. His eyes met mine in his rear veiw mirror, and when the lights went green, sat there holding up traffic until I went past so that he could pull me over...

THAT is bullshit and was discrimination...

But our police mandatorily breathalize (and now drug test) every single person they pull over. They also have "Booze Busses" which are parked on the side of the road and wave people to the side of the road randomly to be tested....

It's one of those things that's like, if you're not doing the wrong thing, you shouldn't be worried about it....

Which also leads into the whole, video cameras everywhere on our streets... Do you feel it's an invasion of your privacy, or a saviour incase anything bad happens to you, or better yet, prevents someone doing something bad to you for fear they will be caught on the camera...


I guess where you guys have this subject related to civil liberties, it's just the norm for us here so doesn't really phase anyone and is never an issue discussed in media.....


If they impliment in there, i'm sure in a year or 2 it will be a non issue... I personally don't mind it..

[Gandalf]

It seems like a normal thing to me. I have no problem with arbitrary checking, just as long as they don't target certain groups of people (on ethnic grounds for example).

I'm a civil liberties kind of guy, but in this case if there is nothing to hide then it shouldn't be a major problem. I would have no qualms with being checked, but then I refuse to drive a car either.

[BIG H]

I can see both sides. The problem s where I live, The Cops are all koonts and love to stop you just to p1ss you off. I got stopped for not wearing aseat belt the other day dropping my missus and little one off at nursery. When I had dropped them off, the old bill stopped me and then were going to seize the vehicel becuase I didn't have any ID and when they contacted the DVLA my missus was not the registered owner (she is, because I phoned them myself and they told me the old bill were talking sh1te)

Hate them

[Snakey]

Yeah like diz said this is just normal for us. We get alot of cops pulling over young people just because they are P platers (we have plates with the letter P on them to show every other driver that we are only on our a provisional license). Its bullshit in ways but if your not doing something wrong then why worry.