Re: 鈥淒on鈥檛 breathe easy if you鈥檙e sober, you still have to blow,鈥� April 14.
My name is Gary Forsyth and I have been receiving considerable media attention lately. This was all regarding my wife being charged at 9:30 a.m. Feb. 19, under the new impaired-driving laws. (My 68-year-old year wife does not take a day off work to drive downtown for a doctor鈥檚 appointment after getting drunk at breakfast time.) We were lucky enough to have a good lawyer and a reasonable adjudicator who exonerated her, although it did cost us thousands of dollars.
I have subsequently learned of six more people similarly charged under this new law, but they were all convicted. Alcohol was not determined in any of these cases; the commonality is that they all have respiratory issues.
I have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In terms of this law, that is the same thing as being guilty of having a blood-alcohol count of over .08. So as it stands with this law, people like me we are as good as being guilty all the time.
Last Saturday, a roadblock was put up in my neighbourhood. If I had happened to be on that road, I would likely not have a licence or a vehicle today and be about $10,000 to $12,000 poorer.
If I am going to experience the wrath of the Canadian justice system, please convict me for a wrongdoing, not having a lung disease. I very much want to drive around this great country free of the fear that I now constantly have.
Gary Forsyth
Victoria
