Dui laws in Canada

Alberta

The laws in Alberta stipulate that if a person drives with a blood alcohol content of over .08, he is driving while impaired. For the first offense, the person will have to pay a fine of 700 dollars. Plus, they will be suspended from the roads for 3 months. They will also probably have the Interlock device on their car to keep them from making other mistakes. The penalties for such offenses can vary as the judge see fit since some circumstances are worse than others. These can go up to 3 years and some even 5 years for second and third offense respectively. DWI education courses are required even with just the 1st offense, but if it’s the second or third time, the court will request that you take a much bigger and more intensive course about DWI and alcohol. In Alberta, the law is no different if you are a novice or experienced driver.

British Columbia

In British Columbia, it is an offense to drive while under the influence of alcohol, and this is calculated legally by the blood alcohol content in one’s system. The legal limit is a BAC of .08 %. It is also an offense to refuse to perform a test that will measure your BAC. When you are charged of a drunk driving offense for the first time in B.C. you are going to have to pay a fine, your insurance will go up. In B.C., you will always be prohibited from driving for an entire year if you are caught drunk driving. The only place they will let you drive is to and from work, nothing else.

Manitoba

Manitoba has instated new and tougher laws so that the authorities can curb drunk driving. The zero-tolerance law has now been extended for more than three years. So the new drivers have now five years of no tolerance where they cannot be caught behind the wheel with a single drop of alcohol in their system. When you are caught driving while under the influence, your license is going to get suspended for at least three months. And if you’re caught driving while your license is suspended, you car can be impounded for 30 days. There is a year suspension for the second offense and a 3 year long suspension for the third, but those can be decreased if the judge desires it. If a person is a repeat offenders, at some point the judge will require that the person gets and assessment and possibly a treatment. Also they might impound your car for 30 to 60 days.

New Brunswick
The DUI laws for New Brunswick are really simple. First of all, if you just graduated and got your driver’s license, there is a zero-tolerance law for over 27 months, so new drivers can absolutely not drink. And if one is caught, his license gets suspended for a year and he has to go though the driving tests and graduate again.
The first offense with a BAC of over 0.08 % gives one a fine of at least 300 dollars and his license suspended for over six months. If you get caught again with your BAC over the legal limit, it will be a one year suspension. For the offenders, they can be instructed to go through educational classes and a fee of 200$ on the first offense, but the courses get more intense and the fee gets bigger (412$) for subsequent offenses.

Newfoundland

The blood alcohol content limit for this province is .08, that’s when the penalties start. When Criminal Code offenses are committed, a person can have a one year suspension and that is only for the first offense. And if in the next five years, the person has a second offense; it’s a two year suspension and 3 years for the third offense. There are also administrative suspensions if multiple offenses happen in a span of two years: 3rd 2 months of suspension, 4th – four months, 5th and on – six months. The offenders can also be subject to DWI courses to educate them or even treatments if need be. The offenders have to pay for the courses, usually it’s about $100.

Nova Scotia

In Nova Scotia, there is what we call a zero-tolerance policy for the new drivers. This means that when you graduate as a driver, you cannot be caught behind the wheel with a single drop of alcohol in your body, and that policy goes on for two years and three months after you first graduate. The laws are pretty harsh in Nova Scotia, if you get caught for the first time drunk driving, your license will be suspended for a whole year. And if you get caught again within the next 5 years, the consequence is 2 years without driving. The third offense can vary but may go up to a 5 year suspension. If a person has repeated offenses, the court may require that classes be followed or that treatments be done.

Ontario

There is a zero-tolerance law in Ontario, which stipulates that novice drivers have a .00% BAC legal limit, so that if they are caught with alcohol while driving they get a month long suspension and a fine of $90. That law is valid for 20 months from the moment you officially get your driver’s license.
If your BAC level is over .08% while you are an experienced driver, you could have a suspension of over 30 days, and that also applies if you refuse to get tested. A fine can be from $300 to $1,200 depending on the extent of injuries caused and such. For the second offense, your license will be of 3 years with another fine. For the third offense, your license could be suspended for the rest of your life. The sentence can be brought down to ten years if you have done the educational courses and if you get the interlock device installed on your vehicle. But if you get a fourth drunk driving offense, you will as a driver get suspended for life with no possibility of appeal.

Prince Edward Island

The legal BAC limit in Prince Edward Island is .08%, much like the rest of Canada. But there is a special law for people under the age of 19 years old, the legal limit is lowered to .01 for all drivers below that age. And if a driver younger than this gets caught with a BAC greater than .01, there is a fine of 500 dollars and there is also a license suspension of a whole 3 months. If you are charged for a second time, it is a 6 months suspension.
When you get arrested for drunk driving for the first, you will not be allowed to drive for 90 days. When you are charged for a second time within 5 years, it is a 2 year license suspension. And the third offense from the offender still within 5 years will cause him to lose his license for 3 years. This sentence can be changed by the judge and reduced if the circumstances grant it. Judge can require that the offender follow an alcohol educational course, but repeat offenders will often have to get assessed and then treated for their alcohol problem.

Quebec

Quebec province has special laws for new drivers concerning alcohol. There is a BAC legal limit of .00 for the first two years of any new drivers in Quebec. If you are caught with alcohol behind the wheel during those 24 months, you can get your license taken away for 3 months.
If you get charged for drunk driving in Quebec, you get 2 weeks for the 1st offense; the 2nd offense gets you a month of suspension for your license. But there are way worse penalties when the criminal code is broken, the criminal code offense is a year-long suspension. The second offense of this type less than 5 years apart from the first is 2 years without your license, and the third offense takes your license away for 3 years. Judge may request, if you have more than one offense, that you go through alcohol education or treatment in order to get your license back.

Saskatchewan

The Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) limit in Saskatchewan is 0.08%. But the limit is lower for younger drivers, it is actually .04. Right away, when you are caught driving while impaired, there is a possible suspension of 10 days and that is only for the first offense of this kind. When you are charged for the 2nd time, the person will be required to take a DWI course plus the usual suspension. But for the third offense, there is a 90 days of suspension plus they have to get an assessment and treatment for their alcohol problem. Of course, that is without the consequences of breaking the Criminal Code, which can go up to a 5 year –long suspension, but this is often established by the court depending on the circumstances of the incidents.

^Reference

^{www.lawers.ca
http://www.britishcolumbiaimpaireddrivinglawyers.com
http://news.gov.mb.ca/news/index.html?archive=2006-12-01&item=603
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/MISC/driving/s20p1.htm
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/research/pub/DWIothercountries/dwiothercountries.html#_Toc449518803}

Last Updated on Friday, 18 June 2010 16:31