Ontario street racing law ruled unconstitutional

NYSpeed Automotive
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TORONTO - Ontario drivers can still get tickets for speeding but street racing cases currently before the courts may get thrown out after the province’s street racing law was deemed unconstitutional.

Toronto lawyer James Morton says the ruling by Judge G.J. Griffin of Napanee strikes down the law because it allows people to be convicted and face jail time even if they’re morally blameless.

In his decision, the judge didn’t prevent police from handing out tickets but the move will put cases on hold pending an appeal by the Crown.
Even if the decision doesn’t hold up, says Morton, the charges may get thrown out anyway because of delays.

The province brought in stiffer fines and automatic suspensions of driver’s licences in 2007 in hopes of cracking down on dangerous driving. Under the law, minimum fines for street racers were $2,000, with a maximum of $10,000 - a penalty Ontario said at the time was the highest in Canada for street racing.

Taken from CBC news.
Good news.

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:tup:

The days of the Ontario Autobahn are never going to return though. Not now that they’ve tasted the sweet sweet taste of speeding violation revenue.

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This might be nice for certain things, but why is this good news? So you can go somewhere that you don’t care about anyone and put their lives in danger again?

EDIT - keep in mind those laws were specifically targeting EXCESSIVE speeding. At least 50km/hr over the limit for those fines. IIRC.

I’d like to hear Bing’s opinion on this.

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I rememeber when my cavalier got redflagged at the border for street racing. I had to pull over and go inside to talk to one of the border agents. The guy was flippin out on me about how dangerous it was and that i could kill his family. I made the guy walk outside and asked him “do you really think i street race THIS!” Then he made me pop the hood and trunk…he was looking for my nonexistant :tspry:

I wasn’t racing or anything. I was parked when an officer asked me for my license and what not. To the least i was very confused.

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Silly Canadians…street racing is as American as Apple Pie and Chinese Food

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http://www.citytv.com/toronto/citynews/news/local/article/57533--street-racing-law-ruled-unconstitutional-opp-will-continue-to-lay-charges

A newly enacted provincial law that targets dangerous drivers has been ruled unconstitutional.

Ontario’s street racing and stunt driving legislation carries a possible prison sentence, but gives the accused limited grounds for defence, a Napanee judge found.

Ontario Court of Justice Judge G J Griffin made the decision Friday.

However, that doesn’t mean cops will stop handing out tickets.

“From what I understand of that legislation, it was just on that individual case,” OPP Sgt. Dave Woodford explained Wednesday on Breakfast Television.

“We’re still enforcing it.”

In a weekend safety blitz, the Ontario Provincial Police found over 7000 infractions on our highways.

That included 133 impaired driving charges, 7193 speeding charges and 10 of the controversial stunt driving charges.

“Under the stunt driving and street racing legislation there are a lot of different definitions and one of them is going more than 50 kilometres an hour over the posted speed limit.

“That’s the portion of it that we mainly deal with on the highways, but there are others, like going through intersections,” Woodford added.

Laying Down The Law
What does the new law against street racing and stunt driving call for? Here’s the list:

-The minimum fine is $2,000 while the maximum is $10,000 after a conviction, the highest penalty in Canada.

-Police can issue an immediate seven-day driver’s licence suspension and seven-day vehicle impoundment for street racing, participating in a driving contest or stunt driving.

-Courts can impose a driver licence suspension of up to 10 years for a second conviction, if the second conviction occurs within 10 years of the first.

-For a first conviction, the maximum licence suspension period remains at 2 years.

-The definition of a “driving stunt” includes driving a motor vehicle at 50 km/h or more above the posted speed limit.

-The Act also bans driving a motor vehicle on a highway with a connected nitrous oxide system. Some street racers use nitrous oxide to enhance the acceleration capabilities of their vehicles.

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Good the law didn’t do anything to curb speed anyway, just made people more inclined to run.

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what could happen if you got caught with nitrous hooked up but the bottle closer ?

did you have to have a bottle removed from your car?

what a dumb law…

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Actually, as Bing and others have observed, the cops stopped caring about those who were speeding under 50k because the revenue was much higher if they caught just one going over 50k… Or something like that, Bing can fill it in. Basically you could reasonably speed easier under this law.

Towing companies were cutting deals with cops to give them a % of the profit from the mandatory tow for offenders too.

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haha! +1

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What exactly does that mean - morally blameless? Like speeding unintentionally?

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i like to hear this! yayy for racing in canada

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two things… as josh mentioned cops do not seem to care about 20-35 kph over the limit on the highways anymore… they seem to focus on the money-shots. 50+

I guess that is a good thing, iono, but i’ve driven through a few radar traps at 25-30% over without issues on several occassions in the last year.

This is the killer though.

We have what is call “Chasing” in the GTA (Toronto). if you’ve driven around you have undoubtedly seen all of the tow trucks sitting on the site of the highway.

these guys are essentially organized crime. they have a central network monitoring the highways and police scanners to find downed cars to hook and tow back to their impound lots.

Insurance companies routinely have to pay $2000 - $4000 to get the cars released… i have personally been around $800 for less than 12 hours of storage for an accident car that was directed to a collision center less than 8 minutes away… the tow truck decided to keep it over night instead and delivered it in the morning on his own accord.

Now this is happening:

http://www.citytv.com/toronto/citynews/news/local/article/11013--opp-officer-charged-for-allegedly-falsifying-traffic-stops

The police have always been involved in ‘chasing’ reserving sidelined cars for chasers instead of legitimate towers.

Now the select yards are paying the police to issue the 50 over tickets because it comes with a 7 day impounding of the vehicle which means several hundred if not thousands of dollars in revenue for the impound lot that you cannot get out of. There are no set rates, it will depend on your car and how well you are dressed.

one cop was caught and is facing charges as highlited in the article above… there are more to be sure.

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A few years ago when I got pulled over for a friend not wearing a seatbelt, the Sheriff seen an aftermarket alarm LED blinking on my dash (it’s stuck on) and made me pop my hood and trunk looking for :tspry: too lol. I didn’t get any tickets though.

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Wow something positive about Canada? Cool.

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i dont like these laws!

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pedal to the floor the whole way everytime and never seen a cop in i can’t count how many hundreds of trips. thats a lot of seat time at 140+