A recent study has shown that the incidence of drinking and driving is on the increase in Canada. It is no surprise that this fact elicited a response from Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner Julian Fantino.
In an open letter to Ontarians, Fantino promised to extend RIDE programs conducted by his officers throughout the year rather than just on peak holiday weekends and the Christmas season. The Commissioner also called for increase penalties for alcohol related driving offences as well as the closing of loopholes that allows some of those who are charged with these offences to get off. So far so good. But buried in Fantino’s letter was the proposal to impound vehicles of those who are caught driving while either impaired or with a blood alcohol level above the legal limit. The Commissioner suggests that the length of time that vehicles are impounded increase for subsequent offences.
Canada, which of course includes Ontario, is not big on private property rights. When our beloved Charter of Rights was drafted by Pierre Trudeau’s left wing government, the right to property was specifically left out. As a result of the Charter, gays and lesbians have the right to marry but not to own a car that is free from seizure by the government.
Fantino was instrumental in getting the province to define racing as including anyone who exceeds the posted speed limit by 50 km an hour. While the legislature does have the right to so define speeding, as it has to make an apple an orange as long as it is acting within its jurisdiction, that move robbed the notion of racing of any meaning. That is why most of the media reported the fact of the 85-year-old man who was caught “racing”. It just seemed so funny. We all knew that as fast as he was going and as dangerously he was driving, the senior was not racing. Speeding at certain speeds was simply called “racing” because it would be more palatable to seize the vehicle of someone who was racing than it would as someone who was simply “speeding” albeit at exceptionally fast speeds. Perhaps the worst result of the racing law was the look of glee on the faces of OPP officers when they managed to seize the property of car rental agencies. That sure taught those capitalists a lesson.
Of all Fantino’s suggestions, the additional grounds for seizing private property is the most likely to fly. The province has no power to increase the penalties or otherwise amend federal criminal code provisions for drinking and driving related offences. And the implementation of sufficient RIDE programs to put a dent in impaired driving will be subject to budgetary restraints. But Dalton McGuinty and his Liberal government will be only too happy to extend the grounds for seizing the private property of Ontarians.
Let’s take an example of a young family consisting of a husband and wife and a couple of kids. They live in a rural area because they cannot afford a home in a major centre. They can only afford to have one car that is owned by the wife. Public transit in their area is nonexistent. The husband ends up getting the car seized by the police for what is now called “racing”. The wife ends up with no viable means to go to her job, take and pick up the kids from school or daycare or to shop for necessities. Her car, not her husband’s has been seized. The hardship imposed upon her by the government highlights the fact that the notion of private property has little meaning in the People’s Republic of Ontario. All this is for the good of the masses of course.
Fantino is naturally entitled to his opinions on what should be done to reduce drinking and driving on the province’s roads. Unfortunately, he has no trouble getting Dalton McGuinty to do his bidding when it comes to seizing the private property of Ontarians.
What is really bad is that the vast majority of Ontarians; especially the ones who helped Dalton achieve his second majority government, see nothing wrong with this. And they aren’t likely to until the police come and take away their cars.
