Re: “Don’t breathe easy if you’re sober,” April 14.
I am all for removing the last impaired driver from the road. But it must be done reasonably and rationally. The present law, which allows an officer to demand a breath sample almost on a whim, is a giant overstep and might be the first step down a road no rational Canadian would countenance.
As the most recent case shows, the sole rationale used by the officer to inflict a disproportionate amount of suffering on an innocent senior was his opinion that by merely visiting a liquor store, the accused must be drunk, because as everyone well knows, no rational person ever visits a liquor outlet during the day if they are sober.
When I read the article, I had to wonder if the officer himself had ever ventured inside such a retailer except under cover of the night.
Yet he was apparently within his rights under this overreaching law to cause great emotional distress to a woman whose trust in the police has now been shattered, simply because he chose to overlook her perfectly rational explanations in his zeal to rack up another “victory” for law and order.
But at what cost?
K.M. Frye
Central Saanich
