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Every holiday season, volunteers for Mothers Against Drunk Driving Canada (MADD) distribute red ribbons to remind us of the lives lost due to impaired driving. Look around over the next few weeks, and you’ll find them on key chains, car antennas and pinned to jackets.

This year, though, the Red Ribbon campaign takes on a greater resonance.

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A bill that will provide our justice system with significant new powers designed to deter impaired driving — both for alcohol and for a broad range of drugs, including cannabis — is now before the Senate.

This is an important bill, and one that deserves a thorough review. But it is crucial that senators do not confuse Bill C-46 with another bill before us pertaining to drugs — the one to legalize recreational use of marijuana.

Doing so could risk delaying the new impaired driving laws, and that would be a disservice to all those volunteers — many of whom have lost love ones to impaired driving — and to Canadians generally.