The case, which involved the death of an eight-year-old boy after the canoe tipped, required the Ontario Court of Justice to determine whether a canoe counts under Canada’s impaired driving laws. But for now it stands as the best guide to how Canada’s impaired driving laws apply to watercraft, and it gives police a much stronger legal basis to charge paddlers. Here are a few of the major issues:If a canoe counts under impaired driving laws, what else does? It passed legislation in 1961 to include “vessels” under our impaired driving laws, but it never defined what a vessel is or whether it needs to be motorized. The penalties for impaired boating are the same as for impaired driving; a conviction comes with mandatory minimum fines, jail time in some cases, and a permanent criminal record.

Source: National Post July 02, 2019 19:54 UTC