In December 1969 police in Canada were given a new tool in the fight against drunk driving: mandatory breath tests.
In Cornwall, some local politicians thought it was a bad idea, that the new law was taking away the “rights” of citizens.
One of the anti-mandatory testing council members offered a geography lesson: “This isn’t Russia.”
In a 6-4 vote, city council supported a resolution that called on the federal government to make the tests voluntary.
Think about that one.
Officer to suspect: “Would you like to take a breath test?”
“This resolution shows that people still have rights,” said another resolution supporter.
One councillor expressed concern breath tests would be used by “overzealous” police officers hell-bent on nailing “honest, hard working citizens” for making “a mistake.”
Some one else said everybody wants to keep drunk drivers off the road but forcing drivers to take a breath test was “going too far.”
You can’t make this up.
But there was a sliver of sanity around the council table.
Ralph Carrara said he couldn’t support the resolution because studies showed that the mandatory tests will take more drunk drivers off the road and save lives.
It didn’t take city police long to register an impaired driving charge using the breath test.
The law was in effect less than two hours when an officer spotted a car idling in a Pitt Street parking lot after it had run over a concrete barrier. The female driver, from a well-connected family, failed the test and was charged with care and control of a vehicle (while impaired).
She became the first female driver in Ontario to fail a breath test, just 45 minutes after a Toronto man made dubious history as the first Ontario driver to fail a test.
In Cornwall, the incident was not made public by city police. The local media found out while covering court five days later. After pleading guilty, she was fined $50 and had her driver’s licence suspended for three months.
The Standard-Freeholder carried the ‘historic’ event in a 30-word brief tucked below the fold of the local page, while over on the opinion page an editorial praised the new law.
DECEMBER 1969: A single mother, living on social assistance, and her five children – age 5-14 – escaped unhurt from their burning two-bedroom downstairs apartment on Prince Albert Street but lost everything. The fire started in the kitchen stove and quickly spread to the rest of the small apartment…. The Standard-Freeholder sports department named acceptance of the Royals into the newly formed Quebec Junior Hockey League – the only non-Quebec based team – as the top sports story in 1969. The new club’s executive included G. B. Markell, president; Larry Lascelle, first vice-president; Gus Lebrun, second vice-president; Paul Emard, secretary; Luc Emard, treasurer. Jim Larin was coach and Norm Baril general manager. … Former Royals centre Dave Snelgrove, a sophomore, was the University of Vermont Catamounts leading scorer. … Mike Fitzpatrick of Baril’s Real Estate was leading the Cornwall Junior Hockey League with 40 points on 25 goals and 15 assists. Eugene Morawski was second, nine points behind. … Cornwall Cable Vision sought permission from the Canadian Radio-Television Commission (CRTC) to pick up overnight programming from WVNY-TV in Burlington, Vt. … Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and the premiers discussed guaranteed annual income. (It is still being discussed). … A Los Angeles grand jury inducted five people – two men and three females – on murder charges in the brutal slaying of actress Sharon Tate and four others. Indicted were Charles Manson, 35, Charles Watson, 24, Linda Kasabin, 21, Patricia Krenwinkle, 21, and Susan Atkins, 21, who died in prison in September 2009. Atkins was terminally ill with brain cancer but the state refused to release her so she wouldn’t have to die in a prison hospital. Kasabin was granted legal immunity for her testimony against Manson. She died in January 2023. Watson and Krenwinkle remain in prison. Another member of the gang, Leslie Van Houtin, convicted in a separate killing spree, was released from prison in 2023 after serving 53 years. … The Liberal government announced that it was cutting the armed forces reserves by 4,000 with the army militia taking the biggest hit. It also planned to close 41 armouries. Cornwall was on the hit list but survived. … Pop singer Tiny Tim of ‘Tip Through the Tulips’ fame and teen-age fan Vickie Budinger married. The singer claimed to be 16 but school records showed he was 42. The bride was 17. … The death toll in a fire that destroyed a nursing home in Notre-Dame-du-Lac, 120 miles north-east of Quebec City, was 39. Only 20 residents escaped. The home was a former frame school built in 1894. …
THINGS AND THINGERS: Upper Canada District School Board, as of this writing, hasn’t disclosed the site it has selected for new ‘super’ high school. Ideal site would be Marleau Avenue east, which is where the city wanted the separate board to build its new school, Holy Trinity. … Standard-Freeholder has replaced retired Todd Hambleton with Marc Benoit. He was the Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry New Democratic Party candidate in the 2018 provincial election…. The TV news is so depressing I’m starting to watch the Aquarium channel. … Trump has nominated ex-NFLer Scott Turner as Housing and Urban Development (HUD) secretary. Not the first time an ex-football star has joined a president’s cabinet. In 1989 George W. Bush appointed former NFL quarterback Jack Kemp to the same position. Between NFL gigs, Kemp spent one season with the Calgary Stampeders.
TRIVIA: Before it was re-named Power Dam Drive it was called ….?
TRIVIA ANSWER: William Conrad played the former Los Angeles detective turned private detective in the CBS show ‘Cannon’.
QUOTED: “Being President is like being the groundskeeper in a cemetery: there are a lot of people under you, but none of them are listening.” – Bill Clinton
