A proposed change to the impaired driving laws would hit close to home for Muskoka.
Parry Sound Muskoka MP Tony Clement says Bill C-46 is meant to add new consequences for drivers impaired by drugs to the current impaired driving law. The bill didn’t have consequences for anyone using man-powered vessels like canoes or kayaks while impaired. This means impaired paddlers would be allowed on rivers and lakes across Canada.
Earlier this year 37-year-old David Sillars was charged with impaired operation of a vessel causing death after eight-year-old Thomas Rancourt was killed when he fell out of a canoe in Bracebridge. Clement says pulling this important piece of the impaired driving law would mean there would be no justice for someone like Rancourt. Clement says the feds have since added this piece of the impaired law to the bill.
A pretrial to address Sillars’ charges is set for October 19th in Newmarket.