# Canadian law and extreme intoxication **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 17, 2022, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-law-and-extreme-intoxication/966430 "2022-06-17T22:22:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2022, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-law-and-extreme-intoxication/966430/1 "2022-06-17T22:22:23Z")
The MinInternet of Justice has tabled a bill to impose criminal liability for extreme self-induced intoxication leading to serious personal injury offences: > **[Liberals introduce bill to eliminate self-induced extreme intoxication as a...](https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6492679)** > > Justice Minister David Lametti has introduced legislation that would amend the Criminal Code to ensure that people who voluntarily become extremely intoxicated can be held legally responsible for their actions while in that state. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2022, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-law-and-extreme-intoxication/966430/2 "2022-06-18T12:38:29Z")
I am certainly not an expert on this issue, and I don’t object to the idea that people who choose to get really drunk should be responsible for their actions to at least some degree. How many times has this defence been successfully used? My understanding is very rarely. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2022, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-law-and-extreme-intoxication/966430/3 "2022-06-18T16:55:53Z")
What if you become extremely intoxicated _involuntarily?_ Canada… ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2022, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-law-and-extreme-intoxication/966430/4 "2022-06-18T17:07:09Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > How many times has this defence been successfully used? Yes, that was my question. I’m surprised that it was _ever_ a defense, except perhaps for a clueless young teenager getting drunk for the first time. I question whether people really don’t know what they are doing when extremely drunk if they are still sufficiently mobile and coordinated to carry out bad acts. The fact that they may not _remember_ what they do is not the same thing at all. It just seems such an obvious glaring loophole to criminal culpability if this defense is ever allowed. ---
**Author:** ![Heracles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heracles/32/487_2.png) [@Heracles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heracles)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2022, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-law-and-extreme-intoxication/966430/5 "2022-06-18T17:20:46Z")
As the article above says, the reason for this new law is that the Supreme Court _did_ rule, last month, that it can be allowed as a defense. > **[Supreme Court rules extreme intoxication defence available for violent crimes...](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/supreme-court-calgary-case-assault-mushrooms-extreme-intoxication-brown-1.6451012)** > > A Calgary man who broke into the home of a university professor and attacked her with a broom handle has seen his acquittal reinstated after the Supreme Court of Canada ruled the defence of self-induced extreme intoxication is available in cases of... ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2022, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-law-and-extreme-intoxication/966430/6 "2022-06-18T18:04:59Z")
The reason it was disallowed was an issue of legal definitions, and the court essentially said the law needed to be restated slightly. So this is what happened. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2022, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-law-and-extreme-intoxication/966430/7 "2022-06-19T14:50:13Z")
It should perhaps be clarified that the phrase “tabled a bill” means something very different in Canada than it means in the United States. * * * Intoxication used to be taken very lightly in the United States until about (IIRC) the early 1970s or so. Drunk drivers, in particular, were not treated very seriously no matter what harm they caused, and often got off with very light sentences. Then the lobbying group Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) created enough political pressure in the United States to create the strict drunk driving laws we have now. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2022, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-law-and-extreme-intoxication/966430/8 "2022-06-19T14:52:56Z")
From the article preview cited above: > [@](#): > > . . . seen his acquittal reinstated . . . This phrase caught my attention. Does this mean someone was acquitted, then the acquittal was withdrawn, then reinstated? In Canada, is an acquittal not final in the first place? ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2022, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-law-and-extreme-intoxication/966430/9 "2022-06-19T15:27:20Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Intoxication used to be taken very lightly in the United States until about (IIRC) the early 1970s or so. Drunk drivers, in particular, were not treated very seriously no matter what harm they caused, and often got off with very light sentences. Then the lobbying group Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) created enough political pressure in the United States to create the strict drunk driving laws we have now. This is largely accurate, from my recollection, though it was up until the early '80s that drunk driving wasn’t seen as a big issue. MADD was formed in 1980, and quickly started to have an influence. It was 1984 when the federal government was able to effectively raise the drinking age to 21 nationwide, and states began to toughen their DUI laws in that same era. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2022, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-law-and-extreme-intoxication/966430/10 "2022-06-19T15:37:04Z")
> [@](#): > > PuzzleGal: This was a reply to another thread, but it was so different from that topic that I thought it should be spun off into its own topic Sorry about that - I thought I was creating a new thread. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2022, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-law-and-extreme-intoxication/966430/11 "2022-06-19T15:40:01Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > This phrase caught my attention. Does this mean someone was acquitted, then the acquittal was withdrawn, then reinstated? In Canada, is an acquittal not final in the first place? Yes, an acquittal can be overturned on the basis of errors of law at the trial level and a new trial ordered. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2022, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-law-and-extreme-intoxication/966430/12 "2022-06-19T15:46:45Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > This is largely accurate, from my recollection, though it was up until the early '80s that drunk driving wasn’t seen as a big issue. Too late to add/edit: from a general societal POV, up through the 1970s, drunkenness was still not seen as being as a big issue. In the '70s, entertainers like Dean Martin and comedian Foster Brooks were still, very popularly, portraying themselves as drunks in their appearances on TV and in nightclubs (even if they were likely actually sober at the time). ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2022, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-law-and-extreme-intoxication/966430/13 "2022-06-19T17:19:42Z")
Here’s an article from last month about the SCC decision: > **[Canada's Supreme Court says extreme intoxication a valid defence in murders,...](https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/canada-supreme-court-rules-extreme-intoxication-can-be-defense-in-violent-crime-cases-2/wcm/609d0e2d-9f67-4dd4-8500-59846955006f/amp/)** > > The high court on Friday said a law passed by Parliament in 1995 that prohibits the defence was unconstitutional ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2022, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-law-and-extreme-intoxication/966430/14 "2022-06-23T23:03:17Z")
And the bill to try to fix the problem has passed the House of Commons. Now goes to the Senate. > **[Extreme intoxication bill unanimously passes House of Commons, heads to Senate...](https://globalnews.ca/news/8941446/extreme-intoxication-bill-passes-house/)** > > The Senate can now move to follow a similar process and pass Bill C-28 at all stages by way of a unanimous motion, but several senators have indicated they want more scrutiny.