Opinions July 7, 2008 New Lady opinions @theotherpress.ca New stoned driving laws a mess at best, unconstitutional at worst By Liam Britten Waite the new Carbon Tax may have gotten a lot of attention in the media, there was another change in motoring regulations made on July first of this year; thanks to the implementation of Bill C-16, police officers can now test drivers for drug impairment in the same way that they test for alcohol. Of course, the mechanisms are different; there’s no breathalyser for drugs, so testing must be done in other ways. When an officer pulls a suspect over, the suspect will have to prove to the officer that they are fit to drive by performing sobriety tests. And if an officer flunks you on your roadside sobriety test, that means you get to piss in a cup at the station. This legislation relies on two assumptions that I feel are faulty; first, it presumes that police officers are skilled enough to perform roadside evaluations for drugs. Secondly, we are assuming that a blood or-urine test can accurately determine that a driver is, at that point in time, actually under the influence of a drug to a degree that impairs his driving. In regards to the first assumption, I highly doubt that the average traffic cop can reliably determine if someone is high on drugs from a few simple tests (but then again, I don’t think the average traffic cop can reliably determine anything). A 2002 study in Forensic Science International showed that officers performing these tests are wrong between 19 and 35% of the time— and that could mean a third of all those who get pulled over will be giving blood to the cops whether they were high or not. And what about those blood tests? How will they determine if you’re intoxicated enough? We currently don’t have a definite intoxication level for drugs like the 0.08% limit we have for alcohol; according to the blood test, you’re either intoxicated or not, with no grey area. And perhaps worst of all, a blood test can’t even pinpoint when you were intoxicated. Even if you smoked a joint at a party three weeks ago, that blood test will still show you as positive for weed, and that means you could be charged. Don’t get me wrong, if you’re stoned, tripping or flying so bad that you can’t walk a chalk line, you shouldn’t be driving. But that said, the way these new laws are set up, it’s highly likely that we’re going to see a good number of innocent people convicted alongside those who are truly making our roads less safe. Here’s hoping this law gets taken off the books, and quick. W arcome to British Columbia, the new home of North America’s first-ever carbon tax, which as of July 1, 2008 has begun dinging drivers an additional 2.4 cents per litre at the gas pumps. This new tax is a bigger joke than Gordon Campbell’s hair cut. Despite widespread opposition to the tax (a recent province-wide poll revealed that over sixty percent of British Columbians oppose the tax), Campbell has pushed through with it anyways, which has caused the price of gas in many areas to exceed the $1.50 per litre barrier. All this is done to supposedly get us out of cars and take public transit and reduce our “carbon footprint.” Never mind that the tax affects everyone in the province, including the people who live in the Fraser Valley or outside the Lower Mainland, where suitable transit options are, to say the least, in short supply. Never mind that the carbon tax hits truckers, who have to drive for a living, and are one of the backbones of our economy. Never mind that the new tax comes at a time when the price of oil is a record high, with crude oil just hitting $140 per barrel for the first time in history. What is truly infuriating however is that not only is this tax not fair, it is also extremely hypocritical. First off, Campbell has screamed to anybody who will listen that the carbon tax is revenue neutral, and that income tax will be lowered as a result. Uh, Gordo, that doesn’t sound revenue neutral to most people. Raising the price of fuel increases the price of everything, as stores have to pay more to have their products brought in. So right away, the price of just about everything goes up. Also, income tax reductions are hardly equal for everyone, as the poor, whom the carbon tax will hit the hardest, get much less of a tax break than the wealthy, yet they pay the same amount at the pump. Certainly, the premier takes us for idiots if he expects anybody to believe that the carbon tax is meant to reduce carbon emissions, and isn’t a straight cash grab. Campbell has repeatedly claimed that the carbon tax is meant for. the betterment of the environment. If this is true, then why are “industrial processes” exempt from paying the tax? What this means is that the cement and aluminum industries for example, two very heavy polluters, don’t have to pay the carbon tax, despite the fact that they churn out many, many times the emissions of Joe Average Citizen, who is forced to pay the tax. Next, international shipping boats don’t have to pay the carbon tax either, despite the fact that local ships do. This just doesn’t make any sense economically. We’re charging domestic freighters the carbon tax, but letting ships that come in from foreign nations off scot-free. How exactly that is fair to British Columbians is anyone’s guess. Cruise ships from outside BC don’t have to pay either. Remember, the cruise ship industry is made up of boats that basically all come from outside BC. What is really baffling is that ferries and transit systems are subjected to the carbon tax as well, so they are going to jack up their prices even more to cover the cost. SkyTrain just did that a few months ago, and BC Ferries has announced that increased charges will soon hit the customer. There are many other business that have weaseled out of paying the carbon tax; those listed above are just a few. However, what is really insulting is that Campbell and his spin doctors are trying to justify their tax further by issuing $100 “climate change dividends” to all British Columbians. All that is, ladies and gentlemen, is a bribe. Even worse, it is a bribe with our own damn money! What Campbell has _ conveniently forgotten to tell us is that we will pay GST on the carbon tax. Now before you look at that last sentence and say to yourself “What the fuck?” I want to assure you that that was not a typo. We are now getting taxed ona tax. Can you believe that? We are paying GST on the carbon tax, so we’re getting whacked twice! The government also has the audacity to tell us to spend our money in “green” ways. Itmay. be-trendy to be green at the moment, but I really don’t want Big Brother Gordy telling me how to spend my money, and I certainly don’t want to live in a nanny state, which is what Campbell seems bent on achieving with moronic taxes like this one. ~ 3 Plus, the carbon tax really won’t accomplish anything. It is big enough to put a dent in our wallets but isn’t big enough to force us outside of our vehicles. The fact of the matter is that British Columbia doesn’t have a suitable public transportation system to deal with everyone suddenly ditching their cars; it isn’t anywhere near European standards, which makes the carbon tax even-more unfair. What the new carbon tax really boils down to is an exploitation of our fear. People like to say that the American government keeps their people in a perpetual state of fear, but they should really look around. We’re having our money practically stolen from us on the basis of global warming—a theory that hasn’t even been proven yet! Yes, I know that many people believe what nut cases like David Suzuki have been spewing about global warming; but remember that Suzuki is also.the guy who said that people who don’t believe in global warming should besthrown in jail. So, is the carbon tax needed to pay for any necessary public projects? Nope, it is being introduced because our premier has chosen to believe in unsettled “science.” Oh, and-he gets to take our money. If Campbell and his lackeys really believed the garbage they are telling us about needing to suddenly halt climate change, which has been in motion for billions of years, then they wouldn’t have made major polluters exempt from the tax, its that simple. Finally, we live in a democratic society. The majority are opposed to the carbon tax, but the apparently, the © people don’t have a voice in Gordon Campbell’s government. 7