With an average of 38 busts a day and a total of over 1060 our streets should be much safer. Obviously it isn’t. Even he was surprised by the numbers. I’m not but I’m still wondering where the outrage is.
I want to write this down so I don’t forget.
First is if police are busting 38 people a day and charging them with this law, what were they doing before? Think about it. In Ontario we’ve always had laws dealing with people going 50 over. So I raise the following question: At what rate did the police issue ticket for going 50 over before this seizure law was put into effect?
I was hoping for an easy answer to this question. I hoped to find the answer at the MTO Site. I thought the Ontario Road Safety Annual Report was a good place to start. While the stats are useful, they are not broken down enough to answer my question. According to the 2003 report under the Conviction, Offence, and Suspension Data, 716,120 people were charged with speeding. To my dismay that number is not broken down any further then that. How many were 10 over or 25 over or 50 over. With out that data, it is impossible to see if what Ontario is doing is having any effect. I’ve found a Freedom of Information form online so I will request the data. I’ve never done this before so I’ll write back and let you know how it goes.
Here is what I expect to find. Enforcement of this new law will be up. Fantino expressed surprise when looking at this months numbers. That leads me to believe that they were not actively looking for speeders before. At least not with the zeal they are doing now. Think about it for a sec. Now the government can say “Yeah our road ways are dangerous because look at all the cars we impounded.” Of course when you step up enforcement you will always find what you are looking for. Further more when you really look at it closely you realize that now the police have every incentive to pull you over and charge you with this law if they can. First the fine you pay goes to their budget. Second is the money received trough towing and storage. And because suspension and seizure are done on the spot without right of appeal, they will always find it worth while to use this law. That source of income pretty much mandates enforcement of this law and is a recipe for abuse of power.
A new report at the Globe and Mail that was to be released on Sunday was pulled from the editors desk. With the dollar being as strong as it is and consumers seeing no relief at home it’s no hard to understand why this won’t make the news.
The report is about how at the Canadian Border, duties are illegally
added to items that should be imported duty free under the Canada
Tariff Act, through NAFTA and WTO.
It went on to list these items as duty free, regardless of amount you bring across:
Here’s a list of some of the items that can be brought across the
Canada-U.S. border without paying duty. (Canadian taxes always apply.)
Carpeting
Life jackets and belts
Skates (Ice and roller)
Sleeping bags
Textile articles (bedding, linen, towels, curtains)
Clothing (i think it’s funny to see how people try to hide new clothes.)
Footwear
Articles of plastic, rubber, steel, wood
Auto parts
Baby carriages
Beauty aids, cosmetics and toiletries
Bicycles and tricycles
Canoes/rowboats
Ceramic tableware (dishes) and kitchenware
Cleansers and other cleaning preparations
Coffeemakers
Cookware (stainless steel)
Dishwashers
Electrical ranges
Furniture
Gas barbecues
Golf clubs and balls
Groceries (taxable)
• Candy
• Snackfoods
• Soft drinks
Household batteries
Lightbulbs and light fixtures
Lubricating oils
Luggage
Machine for working wood (wood planer, tablesaw, chainsaw)
Paints and varnishes
Paper products
Petfoods
Photographic film
Pot pourri
Refrigerators
Single use cameras
Speakers
Sports and exercise equipment
Sunglasses
Telephones (Portable and cellular)
Televisions
Tires
Tools (electric handheld)
Vacuum cleaners
Wallets and purses (leather)
Watches (under $50)
Audio and video cassette recorders
Audio and video tapes
Antiques (must exceed an age of 100 years)
Breadmaker
Calculators (electronic)
Cameras, lenses and lashes
Clothes dryers
Compact discs
Compact and video disc players
Computers and related equipment
• Display units
• Keyboards
• Modems
• Printers
• Scanners
• Software (on CD-ROM, disk, tape)
Curling Irons
Electric shavers
Fax and answering machines
Flashlights
Glass and glassware
Hair dryers
Irons (clothes)
Microwave ovens
Motorcycle parts
Rice cooker
Sewing machines
Toasters
Tools (pneumatic powered only)
Toys
Video cameras
Video games and video game units
Come to think about it. These are the common every day items that most
people will claim under the $200 per person cap each weekend spent in
the US. Funny thing is, the limit does not apply to these items.