The B.C. liquor industry is partly funding the legal appeals of some suspected drunk drivers who are trying to get their licences back, CTV News has learned.
Last November, a B.C. Supreme Court judge ruled that the immediate 90-day driving bans issued under the province's tough new impaired driving bans were unconstitutional. The ruling was the result of a challenge from drivers who said their Charter rights were violated when their licences were taken away.
The Alliance of Beverage Licensees of B.C. backed that challenge, and is now helping to pay the legal fees of some accused drunk drivers who lost their licences under the impugned law and are petitioning to get them back.
"It has offended individuals' Charter rights, and so we're before the courts supporting some individuals who have been charged," the alliance's Matt MacNeil told CTV News.
"This is not about the right to drink and drive. This really is about people's individual rights."
B.C.'s bar and pub industry has complained about the new law since it came into effect in September 2010, arguing that it has gutted their business.
"In rural B.C., it's absolutely been devastating. The response we get from members is anywhere from 30 to 50 per cent their sales are down," MacNeil said.
He added that the way the government presented the strict law to the public gave people mistaken ideas.
"We're concerned about the perception that you can't come and have a glass of wine at the end of your business day," he said.
But families of drunk-driving victims see the industry's involvement in the court challenges in a different light.
Markita Kaulius, whose 22-year-old daughter Kassandra was killed by a suspected drunk driver last year, said she's appalled.
"I'm saddened, I'm angry. To me, that's such a conflict of interest," Kaulius said.
The industry's legal endeavours aren't finished yet, though. The alliance is also challenging penalties for drivers who refuse to submit to breathalyzer tests and plans to go after the consequences for drivers who blow in the "warning" range.
"We think it should go back to the way the law was in the past," MacNeil said.
The government will be introducing new legislation this spring that it says will give drivers more of chance to challenge breathalyzer results.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Mi-Jung Lee
