Street Racing Legislation in Ontario - is it worth it?

October 1, 2007, the new street racing legislation became law in Ontario, Canada. Or did it? This is legislation that denies a basic human right in Ontario and in Canada as a whole. That right is the right to be considered innocent until proven guilty before a tribunal (a judge)

But that isn't all. The new law gives police sweeping new powers to seize vehicles and have them towed to an impound yard. Your license is suspended for a week on the spot no matter how far away from home you are whether or not you have the means to get home. This can happen even if you are completely innocent. If the cop doesn't like you, or your car, your colour, your clothes, you can still have your car impounded and it can be done on the suspicion you might use the car to race on the street. Age and gender are no protection.

In court you may be found completely innocent but you still won't get the fees back or restitution for the damage caused by a week's license suspension. The damages are in the thousands of dollars most times. You're guilty until proven guilty. The police regard the system as a 100% conviction rate.

How did this happen? There were three accidents in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) involving street racers and fatalities over a one year period. They were high profile cases and all were tragic. The media and the public went nuts and if the perpetrators weren't in police custody, no doubt they'd have been lynched.

However, over 99% of the street racing problem is in the GTA. Ontario is a big place. The GTA is a dot. In terms of street racing deaths contributing to the total numbers of accidents annually over an eight year period, street racing contributes three tenths of one percent.

Empty cars contribute twice that as do wildlife.

Distractions and medical causes contribute to over 80% of accidents and fatal accidents yet the police are not making a big deal out of that. Why not?

But still no one is arguing that something needs to be done about street racing. In most of Ontario, there are tracks and remote areas where racers can race in peace and are something of local heros - but not anywhere near the GTA. In Poland, the cities have sanctioned street racing and reap huge economic benefits from it. In the GTA, that same sort of person is criminalized. In the GTA, there is nowhere for the racers to race except on city streets. The problem is decades old and the solution has always been the same, the GTA needs facilities and the GTA has no intention of giving them the facilities. So rather than experience an economic boom, the GTA is cutting off its economic nose to spite its face. Meanwhile, Formula Races happen in the GTA no problem.

The big deal for Ontarians and others is that the governnment changed the meanings of the words 'racing' and 'stunt'. Having done that the government is then penalizing the unaware public. The new meaning of the word racing is really a new definition that says you are going 50 kph (30 mph) over the posted speed limit. Therefore you were racing. Maybe you were actually going shopping or coming home enjoying the drive. But according to police you were racing. Car towed, license suspended and so on.

Stunt driving is a term that's so vague it could be and is being determined to mean nearly anything you could possibly do in a car whether or not it's moving.

So ask yourself this - If the meanings of these two words can be changed, couldn't the meanings of other words in other legislation be changed just as easily? Yes it can. By changing the meanings of those two words, the Ontario legislature destabilized all of Ontario's legislation and drove a wedge of distrust between themselves and the public.

They also paved the way for Rent-A-Cop. That's what happens when a person asks a friendly cop to do something about the kid across the street with the noisy car. If the cop is agreeable, it's no sweat for him to impound the car, take the license and then maybe later withdraw the charge. It's an amazing way to tag team someone you don't like. Or maybe it's just the cop that doesn't like someone. For a reason the driver may never know, his life could take a sharp financial nosedive. It can be done to you or anyone else. There are no safeguards in place to see that it can't happen. And yes it certainly is happening already.

There is lots more. So much more I wrote a book about it - ABUSE OF POWER - ONTARIO'S ILLEGAL STREET RACING LEGISLATION. It's available by e-mailing me at jondy@sympatico.ca for $20.00 plus postage.