Library of Parliament Legislative Summary of Bill Requiring Offender To Provide Sample of Bodily Substance

The Library of Parliament has published a legislative summary of Bill C-30: Response to the Supreme Court of Canada Decision in R. v. Shoker Act:

"Bill C-30 amends the Criminal Code (the Code) to allow a court to require that an offender or defendant provide a sample of a bodily substance on the demand of peace officers, probation officers, supervisors or designated persons, or at regular intervals, in order to enforce compliance with a prohibition on consuming drugs or alcohol imposed in a probation order, a conditional sentence order or a 'peace bond'."

"In the 2006 decision R. v. Shoker, a majority of the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the Codedoes not authorize judges to order an individual on probation to provide samples of bodily substances for the purpose of determining whether the probationer is complying with a condition to abstain from consuming drugs or alcohol. The Shoker decision was said to have 'hampered the ability of police and probation officers to monitor offenders in the community' because officers had routinely been demanding breath, blood, or urine samples from individuals who were under a court order that contained an abstention condition."

It is possible to follow the progress of the bill on the LEGISinfo website.