Quebec coroner calls for tougher drunk driving penalties in line with rest of country

MONTREAL — A Quebec coroner says if the province’s penalties for drunk driving were in line with those in the rest of the country, a driver who slammed into a motorcyclist in 2020 would not have been on the road when the fatal accident occurred.

Coroner Geneviève Thériault says the man who was behind the wheel had been pulled over by Quebec provincial police for driving erratically less than an hour before the head-on collision on June 4, 2020.

Officers had him blow into a breathalyzer, which found the level of alcohol in his blood was between 50 and 99 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millimetres of blood, but it could not confirm whether he was above the Criminal Code’s legal limit of 80 mg per 100 ml of blood.

Provincial police say that results in the grey zone between 50 and 99 must be accompanied by other signs of obvious impairment to make an arrest, and in this case they were not sufficient.

The coroner’s report released Tuesday said police told him he could be over the legal limit and urged him to call a friend or wait a few hours before getting back on the road. The stop took place in Grenville, Que., across the Ottawa River from Hawkesbury, Ont.

“Since the test result did not confirm that the legal limit for driving a motor vehicle, set at less than 80 mg/100 ml, was exceeded, the patrol officers informed the driver that he could be over the legal limit and that if he was involved in an accident he could be charged with impaired driving,” Thériault wrote.

“The driver replied that he would pull over before continuing on his way.”

Fifty-two minutes later, the crash occurred on a provincial highway about 50 kilometres from where he had been stopped, with 64-year-old Bernard D’Aragon, an experienced motorcyclist, killed on impact.

Both vehicles were travelling about 90 kilometres per hour. The driver was found guilty of dangerous driving causing death.

Quebec is the only province that has not gone farther than the Criminal Code and established a legal alcohol limit of 50 mg per 100 ml of blood or lower — after which drivers can have their licences revoked or face other sanctions. In Saskatchewan, the provincial limit is 40 mg per 100 ml of blood.

“Quebec is now isolated on the issue of administrative sanctions, as it appears that all provinces and territories in Canada have adopted such sanctions to reduce the number of deaths and accidents related to impaired driving,” Thériault wrote.

“If administrative sanctions comparable to those existing elsewhere in the country had been in effect in Quebec in 2020, the police could have immediately suspended the driver’s licence and seized the vehicle during the stop, which would have prevented the accident.”

Among the coroner’s recommendations for the province’s automobile insurance board and the Transport Department is to amend the province’s Highway Safety Code to ensure administrative penalties are imposed on drivers with a blood-alcohol concentration of 50 mg per 100 ml or higher.

It’s the second time Thériault has called on Quebec to lower its limit, and other coroners issued similar recommendations in 2023. The Coalition Avenir Québec government has steadfastly refused to lower the limit.

“It is essential to act early to protect human life, and I believe we must act without further delay,” she wrote.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 22, 2025.

Sidhartha Banerjee, The Canadian Press