I think its great someone finally blew this up in the air,
I hope more officials read this article and take it into consideration.
www.dndraceway.com we still have a petition for a track in toronto. its the government who is making it hard for people to have a safe place to race. they think imposing rules and new laws will help but it wont. they need to give people a place to go and race. and it will go down dramatically and people wont street race as much. people keep dying and racing and that wont change till they do something smart about it like building a track!
This new legislation is such a publicity grab…
Canada: Ontario Grabs Thirty Cars in One Day
Thirty cars were seized in an Ontario, Canada police blitz as a new policy took effect declaring speeding the equivalent of street racing.
Police in Ontario, Canada seized thirty automobiles within 24 hours after the province’s new speeding ticket policy took effect. Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) grabbed the first car at 12:01am Sunday and by Monday afternoon the blitz had added another 17 cars to the collection for a total of between $94,000 and $470,000 in citation and towing revenue.
“We gave motorists plenty of warning last week that we would be taking advantage of the new legislation to take these aggressive drivers and speeders off our highways,” OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino said.
That legislation, the Safer Roads for a Safer Ontario Act, gave Premier Dalton McGuinty the authority last month to declare driving 50km/h (31 MPH) over the speed limit “street racing” and impose the draconian penalties that had been created to apply to that specific offense. Based solely on the word of a police officer, vehicles and driver’s licenses will be confiscated from anyone accused of “extreme speeding” for at least seven days without trial or any hearing.
“There is no appeal from, or right to be heard before, a vehicle detention, driver’s license suspension or vehicle impoundment under [the street racing] subsection,” the Safer Roads Act states.
Police cited the worst examples as a 23-year-old accused of driving 167km/h (103 MPH) on Highway 403 and a 34-year-old accused of 160km/h (99 MPH) on Highway 401 who both lost their cars. Among the twenty-eight other vehicles grabbed were three rental cars. OPP Chief Superintendent Bill Grodzinski vowed to keep the speed traps running.
“We will continue to go after these drivers,” Grodzinski said. “We will be using aerial surveillance and taking full advantage of the new legislation to impound vehicles.”
“It started Sunday and we impounded 151 vehicles by 6 a.m. this morning,” said Woolley. “We think this legislation is saving lives already.”
A good legal response to the legislation…
Let’s start with this new thing called the balance of probabilities. The first time I heard that expression was when researching the proposed “Stop and Question powers” for British police. A new neologism? I think so. When I took law in high school, I was informed that there were two components to establishing guilt within the Canadian judicial system. The crown, when prosecuting a trial must establish two things beyond a shadow of a doubt to obtain a conviction: Mens rea and Actus reus, guilty mind and guilty act, respectively. A guilty conviction in our system, and all those based on English Common Law, is cogent upon establishing the intention of the accused as well proving their actions as criminal. Thus, the spirit of the law and letter of the law are reconciled and justice, an intangible but evolving thing, is served. I realize the potential for post-modern stymieing in saying “justice is served” as I am sure a great many inquisitors thought justice was served when they burned a heretic. But I will be so bold as to say that our system of jurisprudence, despite its flaws, is probably one of the better things humanity has cooked up over the millennia.
The truly galling issue with Fantino’s law and Bryant’s love affair with the balance of probabilities is that it effectively marginalizes the necessity to establish a Mens rea.
An essential philosophy of our judicial system is that “An act does not make a person guilty unless their mind is also guilty”. This foundation of Common Law is directly threatened by street racing legislation and the position of the Attorney General.
Upon considering Fantino’s Law, concede for the moment that there are situations when a citizen legitimately needs to go faster than is proscribed by law. The protection of these extenuating circumstances is now in de facto control of the police. What if the officer in question cares not for intention, only the letter of the law. Guilt is presumed, a vehicle is impounded, a licence is revoked and in an instant a livelihood is potentially threatened. Even if innocence is presumed in court, punishment is doled out on scene without the benefit of appeal or consideration. If that is how we are going to start doing things then I say get rid of the courts all together and bring on the Street Judges. I’ll take my chances with Judge Dredd thank you very much.
Attorney General Bryant compares building a fast car and the intention to race said car, to building a bomb or manufacturing narcotics. Since 1999, 39 people have been killed in the Greater Toronto Area in incidences of street racing. I’d bet cold hard cash that there are more people dead from drug use and drug related violence in Toronto over the last 8 years than the 39 dead from street racing. While I do not wish to insult the memories of those who have suffered because of street racing, to compare it to the inhumanity generated by the drug trade is shameless hyperbole.
The only comfort I take from this legislation is the knowledge that it is inevitably going to be brought before the Supreme Court on grounds of being a violation of Charter rights. Property seized and destroyed on the grounds of balance of probabilities seems like something that could be argued as a violation of article eight of the Charter – that’s the one that says we are protected against unreasonable search and seizure.
Rest assured, the debate on street racing is far from over. The police will thump their chests on a job well done. The uninformed masses will squawk to their heart’s content on how racers should be publicly flogged, drawn and quartered. But in the end there are some very messy court battles to come. Should the rights of the police to seize vehicles based on the balance of probabilities be upheld as a legitimate tool in crime prevention, then we ought to prepare ourselves to become a cultural successor to Britain where the greater good comes before the rights of the individual.
i wonder how the courts will react with people bringing up the section 8 of the charter of rights, that protects citizens from unreasonable search and seizure.
and innocent before proven guilty etc.
i have a 74 road runner.
no super charger(yet)
no turbo charger.
car is 1yr pre catalytic coverter law
dual exh
325 hp at the wheels
380lb/ft
if I put all the turbo and super charger and racing stuff i want on there…all I haveto say is.
these new cars are so light and stop so easy…I haveto upgrade otherwise I’ll be in an accident…imagine your car took 145ft to stop from 100kph.
new average is arround 110-115ft
big break kit here i come…safety first now children…
crap that means I’m goona need bigger rims to fit the 14" rotors…
rear diff to at least 3.73:1 for the more overall performance
oh ya a supercharger cause moving a “big ol beast” like that isn’t easy (3000lbs wet)…
ok so I’ve got a 74 road runner with 18" rims (minimum) big break kit super charger and very loud exhaust…pushing about 500hp at the wheels.
do you think i’ll beat a 7series bmw?
do you think I’ll beat a porsche?
corvette?
The answer is no…pure and simple…why… cause my car’s in jail for being a reace modified vehicle…
ya right…cop wanted to take it for a spin…write down your mileage boys…$1,000,000/kilometer…thats my rental rate.
^^^ Huh? Wasn’t very clear… was your car impounded? :S
the track is a good idea. signed the petition
there is no solution for street racing unless we all put gps in our cars so the big brother can see how fast we are going at all times
as long there are cars there will be street racing just dont be an idiot and do it on busy roads find some deserted back roads and let it rip
we have contacted the article writer and Bruce Murakami (person in the article), they are going to support us in our fight to build a track in toronto. Tonight i will be modifying DNDraceway.com to fit the new look on what we are doing. We have an interview with the toronto star tomorrow or the next day. to talk about the issues and how we can get support to get a track built in our area.! so lets hope this pushes some people to say yes and we can have a track!
ill keep people posted.
and of course everything the police do is bullshit! everything is for attention and so they can gain something out of it. Street racing is such a big issue. yet how many drug and murders are they? they are quick to jump on us and people who (race or like it as a hobby) but yet you never hear them jump on how to stop people from getting killed by murder on the streets, gang related etc. they dont react that quick. Cause this makes them money and publicity. what good is it to seize 151 cars when that wont make a difference. i bet you 6 cars out of those 151 actually street race. its pathetic. this country is going to shit fast cause of the way these people run things. When we get interviwed im going to mention some things so is justin. We need to make things clear cause its not fair that the authorities have all say and we have to suck it up and stay quiet. pure bullshit. they target us and deside what we do when we pay there saleries etc. punish people who actually do wrong not all of us cause we enjoy the same hobby. not all are alike.