Justice committee  First off, I will mention my father George Marrinier. He submitted a brief statement to the committee earlier. Thanks for the invite to speak today. Everybody here knows my personal tragedy, the horrific death of my son Brad and his two friends. I'm not a legal expert, and I know there are some at this table who are, but where my expertise lies is that I'm a victim.

Justice committee  As I said already, when you wear my shoes and you've been through the court system and you've been through it all, you look at anything that would help and you're kind of thankful for that. Again, just for accountability, there needs to be some form of justice in this great country of ours.

Justice committee  I've been revictimized for three years, not even counting the loss of my son—the court dates, everything. Just when you think you can start forgetting about the man who killed your child, you get that letter from the Parole Board that they're up for parole. You're thinking, “What?”

Justice committee  Thank you.

Justice committee  It's hard for me to judge that. It seems like a lot of money to me. Canada is a large country, all the little towns and the big cities. For all our police, the RCMP, and city police, to have that training in place by the summer will be quite a task. You know what I always ask, why weren't we doing this before?

Justice committee  I would just add something, because you asked him the question about whether stiffer sentences do or do not deter. I skipped that out, because I knew I didn't have a whole lot of time left. From my studying and everything I've been reading, with a lot of help from my family, my father especially, and from everything we could find about whether they deter or not, everything was inconclusive.

Justice committee  Yes, I would be in favour of that. As someone who witnessed first-hand the devastation impaired driving does, I'd pretty much be in favour of anything. Yes, I would be in favour of that being offered, but there still has to be some punishment. For me, if somebody keeps driving drunk and keeps getting caught, that might put the level playing field on.

Justice committee  I mentioned that. I'm very happy they've plugged those loopholes. As I said, many aren't even charged because of those loopholes. They cannot prove one way or the other if they were impaired at the time of the collision. That's one thing, I'm very happy they've plugged those loopholes .

Justice committee  I hate to be negative, but no. What I saw when I studied the bill was that besides the mandatory being completely removed, it also reduced the punishments considerably for the first, second, and third time. When you are caught at a road check, say, they're leaving those exactly the same as in 2008, where they had gone up in Bill C-73 and Bill C-226.

Justice committee  The random breath testing, to me, will not help the hard-core habitual drivers, and those are the ones who cause death. The person who goes out and has a beer or two with their dinner and may blow .06 or .07, they're not typically the ones who did the devastation, like what happened to my son.

Justice committee  I would like to see it called what it is. That's what it is: vehicular homicide, or manslaughter. It's a tragedy, but it's not an accident. For people who drive drunk, and when they're caught, whether they've killed someone or they just get caught at a roadside stop, it is not the first offence.

Justice committee  Thank you.

Justice committee  No. I did fire off an email to the CEO of MADD once, and he didn't reply. I wanted to know, because I believe that the random breath testing, when it's been in place for 20 or 30 years, other factors go along with that, and cultural change. I want to know; I'm curious too, but I have limited resources.

Justice committee  Yes, please let me in on it.

Justice committee  That would be great.