A strange thing happened in the Beer store parking lot right here in my city…

First, a little back story.

Recently, in reaction to an increase of drunk driving accidents, stricter impaired driving laws have come into effect here in Ontario, Canada.

Before the law changed, a police officer had to have a reasonable suspicion of impaired driving before they could demand a breathalyzer test.

Today, with this new amended law, an officer can demand a breathalyzer test from any driver.

Global News has an explanation here.

Click here for the Department of Justice Impaired Driving Laws.

There has been some debate about this amendment. Some lawyers think the new laws violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Regardless, a situation came to my attention in my twitter feed that had me chuckling just a little. It also had me a little bit worried…

I was thinking:

The cops aren’t going to randomly pull people aside without any suspicion at all, now, are they? I mean, there’s plenty of crime in Toronto, including actual drunk, distracted or otherwise under the influence driving accidents, not to mention shootings and stabbings, that should keep them occupied, no? They’re not going to approach some random dude hanging around a parking lot and make him take a breathalyzer just for the hell of it.

Right?

Well imagine my surprise when I see a tweet from Sean O’Shea about this exact situation.

Aside note: Sean is a consumer and investigative reporter and has a segment on Global TV News Canada here in Toronto where he reports his findings on behalf of Canadian consumers. Just recently he did a thing on Samsung appliances, and if you want to know more about my very sad sob story on our Samsung fridge, just click here.

So back to the breathalyzer test.

Some guy was returning a bunch of empty booze bottles at a local Beer store when he was approached by a cop and invited asked told to take a breathalyzer test.

Mid morning. Stone cold sober…probably full of caffeine though. 🙄

Seems the amount of bottles the man was returning were considered excessive, in the officer’s view.

Don’t believe me? Here’s the tweet.

So now I’m really worried. Will my five plus bins of empties lining my house wall along the back, horded since the summer, cause concern among our police force? Will I too be subjected to a breathalyzer test?

Will I look like a lush, lugging my empties to the counter at the Beer store?

I mean, I’m procrastinating returning the empties but at some point, I’ll need some cash to fuel my coffee habit, so I’ll be lugging my bins off to the Beer store. Last time I did this I received fifteen bucks. I mean, that’s some serious procrastinating here, don’t you think? 😜

Sean did make a suggestion:

😂😂😂

So, perhaps later this week, I will take a bin of empty red wine bottles and return them. And maybe the next day, I’ll take the empty whites…

I’ll keep you posted of my adventures. 🙂