Editorial

As of Friday, if you're caught driving with what is generally considered a marginal amount of alcohol in your system, then you are likely in for a lot of inconvenience, at best. At worse, you could have a lot of trouble.

With such levels of alcohol (a blood alcohol content of between 0.05 and 0.08 per cent), your licence can be lifted on the spot for three days, which could be a big problem if you have a job, for example, that requires you to drive. And of you're caught doing that again within five years, your licence is gone for seven days, and 30 for the third time.

These are stiff penalties, to be sure. But it is also true that drinking and driving is still a major problem in our society, putting innocent people in harm's way. There is a very sound argument that any step that might encourage people who have been drinking to stay out of the driver's seat is one in the right direction. To that extent, we agree with the new rules that have come down from the province.

We have all heard too many stories of the tragic results of drinking and driving. Many of us in the media have been to the scenes of traffic accidents in which alcohol was a factor, and the sights are very far from pleasant.

Our problem concerns the right we all have to due process in any legal matter.

Previously, if you were caught with a blood alcohol content between 0.05 and 0.08, your licence was lifted for 12 hours. That could be inconvenient, but the idea behind it was to get borderline cases off the road until they were clearly in a fit state to drive again. Three days, without any judicial process or right of appeal seems almost excessively harsh.

What if the devices used to measure blood alcohol content at the side of the road malfunction? They are mechanisms created by human hands, meaning they are fully capable of going on the blink, possibly without anyone being aware of it.

It has been said many times that driving automobiles on the public roads is a privilege, not a right. But even a privilege should not be removed without justifiable and demonstrated cause.

Driving may not be a right, but due process is.