EDMONTON – Edmonton-East MP Peter Goldring has pleaded not guilty to a charge of refusing to give a breathalyzer.
He entered the plea in an Edmonton courtroom Thursday.
Goldring was arrested early December 2011, after being pulled over on his way home from a constituency Christmas party.
He’ll be back in court Nov. 16.
Goldring, 67, has said he had only one beer the night he was pulled over for suspected drunk driving.
Alberta Education Minister Thomas Lukaszuk was also at the function and has said that Goldring gave him an earful on Alberta’s new drunk-driving law.
The law _ which hasn’t been proclaimed yet _ imposes harsher fines and penalties on not only those who drive over the legal limit, but also those who are close to the legal limit.
Lukaszuk has said he wasn’t in a position to judge Goldring’s state of sobriety.
Goldring has long challenged roadside breath-screening devices as an affront to the presumption of innocence and a person’s right to not self-incriminate.
Shortly after his arrest, he phoned a local radio station to say that while no one should drink and drive, he was standing up for civil liberties.
The MP has stepped aside from the Conservative caucus until the case is resolved and is sitting as an Independent.
Goldring has been the riding’s MP since he was elected under the Reform banner in 1997.
(CHED)
Comments