International Law

Family Day follies

The Toronto Star reports “Family Day a field day for scofflaws.”

Apparently around a thousand minor traffic charges have been thrown out because of court scheduling conflicts arising from Ontario’s new “Family Day” holiday (which is February 18).

This will cost Toronto some $50,000 in lost fines. “We reviewed just over 1,500 charges and it was determined that just under 1,100 charges will be withdrawn. The kind of charges we won’t be pursuing include 159 parking tickets, minor speeding tickets, road sign infractions and minor bylaw infractions,” said Brad Ross (a City of Toronto spokesperson). “We withdrew them because there would be undue delays and many of them would end up being withdrawn because of that and we wouldn’t be able to recover the court costs.”

Accused offenders this week received letters dated Jan. 2 from the City of Toronto advising them of their good fortune.

“Our records indicate that the above noted certificate(s) of offences will be withdrawn in court on Feb. 19. The case will then be complete. There will be no conviction, no fine payable and no other consequences that would result from a conviction. No further action is required on your part,” the form letter states.

It is not known how many cases province-wide are affected, but it could be in the thousands.

…

Attorney General Chris Bentley emphasized no criminal cases should be affected by the closure of the courts on Feb. 18.

“Scofflaw” is a word? When did that happen? I also like the way the story mentions the economic angle (the lost money from fines), but doesn’t address the effect of withdrawing all these charges on the integrity of the justice system. If I had a court date on February 19 I know I’d be a bit upset.

Full post as published by Criminal Review on January 17, 2008 (boomark / email).