Vol. 144, No. 4 — January 23, 2010

Order Amending the Order Approving Blood Sample Containers

Statutory authority

Criminal Code

Sponsoring department

Department of Justice

REGULATORY IMPACT ANALYSIS STATEMENT

(This statement is not part of the Order.)

Description

Before qualified medical practitioners, or qualified technicians under their direction, may use a container designed to receive a sample of blood of a person for analysis for Criminal Code purposes, the Attorney General of Canada must approve the container. Typically, the police departments provide the “approved container”, in respect of blood, to medical staff. The manufacturer of the “BD Vacutainer® REF 367001” previously had two product name changes for this approved container (“BD VacutainerÔ 367001” and “Vacutainer® 367001”) that at times required testimony to explain, in cases that went to trial, that the product remained an “approved container”. Subsection 254(1) of the Criminal Code now lists the “BD VacutainerÔ 367001” and the “Vacutainer® 367001”. The proposed Order will list the most current name that the manufacturer is using on the label for the existing approved container. The Order will be effective as of the date it is registered by the Registrar of Statutory Instruments at the Privy Council Office.

Alternatives

No other regulatory alternatives were considered since the container meets the appropriate scientific standards.

Benefits and costs

Approval by the Attorney General for each name used by the manufacturer for the existing “approved container”, in respect of blood of a person for analysis, prevents the need to have a witness explain the name change in some of the cases that go to trial.

Consultation

This container was considered by the Alcohol Test Committee of the Canadian Society of Forensic Science and approval by the Attorney General was recommended by this body. The Committee is composed of forensic specialists in the breath and blood-testing field and has national representation.

Compliance and enforcement

There are no compliance mechanisms required. Use of the container by police authorities would be voluntary.

Contact

Monique Macaranas
Paralegal
Criminal Law Policy Section
Department of Justice
East Memorial Building
284 Wellington Street, Room 5052
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0H8

Telephone: 613-957-4752

PROPOSED REGULATORY TEXT

Notice is hereby given that the Attorney General of Canada, pursuant to paragraph (b) (see footnote a) of the definition “approved container” in subsection 254(1) of the Criminal Code (see footnote b), proposes to make the annexed Order Amending the Order Approving Blood Sample Containers.

Interested persons may make representations concerning the proposed Order within 30 days after the date of publication of this notice. All such representations must cite the Canada Gazette, Part I, and the date of publication of this notice, and be addressed to Catherine Kane, Acting Senior General Counsel, Criminal Law Policy Section, Department of Justice, 284 Wellington Street, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0H8.

Ottawa, January 13, 2010

CATHERINE KANE
Acting Senior General Counsel

ORDER AMENDING THE ORDER APPROVING
BLOOD SAMPLE CONTAINERS

AMENDMENT

1. Section 1 of the Order A pproving Blood Sample Containers (see footnote 1) is amended by striking out “and” at the end of paragraph (c), by adding “and” at the end of paragraph (d) and by adding the following after paragraph (d):

1. (e) BD Vacutainer® REF 367001.

COMING INTO FORCE

2. This Order comes into force on the day on which it is registered.

[4-1-o]

Footnote a
R.S., c. 27 (1st Supp.), s. 36

Footnote b
R.S., c. C-46

Footnote 1
SOR/2005-37

NOTICE:
The format of the electronic version of this issue of the Canada Gazette was modified in order to be compatible with extensible hypertext markup language (XHTML 1.0 Strict).