You have got to be kidding me !!!

Dictator is correct we can insure our employees 7 days a week 24 hours a day whether they are working or at home at a fraction of the cost and better all around coverage yet they will not allow this.
 
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So at no point during the "new" process do you ever have the opportunity to put your case before a judge or jury. Instead your case gets heard by an unbiased "expert". You can pretty much bet your very last dollar that these so-called experts are police, and most likely those near the end of their careers. In my experience, aside from death and taxes, there are two things I can be sure of ... 1) There is no such thing as an unbiased cop, and 2) a leopard can't change its spots.

Constitutionally, you are innocent until proven guilty. However, with most Highway Traffic Act (HTA) charges, it is the reverse. There is a specific term for it, but I can't for the life of me remember it, regardless, it simply means that if an officer of the law charges you under the HTA you are guilty unless you, the defendant, can prove otherwise. Here's the rub, reasonable doubt is not enough proof. It has to be absolute.

There are things in life that happen to people every day. The kid's sick, the job is on the line, the wife found a girlfriend, etc., etc., etc., that can cause a single moment's inattention and technically put you on the wrong side of the law. Nowhere in this new process could that "state of mind" be used in your defense.

Personally, I will use the "Machine" and take every advantage from it that I can, but I will not be a slave to it.
 
I have parsed the Consultation Paper, it is full of lovely flowery language to assuage everyone outside of Oakville.
It provides the ability to enter a plea without actually having to attend the court house within the defined time. Imagine that, driver gets a ticket and can file a not guilty plea from his/her mobile device. If a satisfactory resolution cannot be arrived at, a trial date can be set.
The real benefit that I see is the ability to enter a plea online, and the "first appearance" would also be online; real time savers for fleet operators and convenient for drivers.
As long as I retain the ability for a trial I will embrace this; rather sceptically.
Read the Consultation Paper, and the flow chart on page 13.
 
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Michael Ludwig, you almost had the term right....Absolute Liability Charge versus Strict Liability Charges under HTA whereas you only have to show due diligence as defence. Absolute is the majority of charges ie speeding etc whereas the charging officer only has to show proof of the infraction being committed. Tough to defend, most charges tossed due to officer no-shows etc.

I like the idea of not having to drive to Cornwall to avoid paying a paralegal to set a court date, whereas I can click on the interweb and set one, and possibly argue with a public servant on the line to lessen the charge or toss it. Lets see what happens here.
 
When have you ever been able to argue with a public servant and have either a reasonable or satisfactory outcome? Public servants, police included, do not exist to serve the public anymore. They exist to reduce the welfare rolls, and make it to pension time. I have an even dimmer view of police, but this is neither the time nor place to expound on that opinion.

It is correct that being able to complete all the administrative type work online would be a benefit, but having a so-called "expert" adjudicate my case is where I draw my line in the sand.
Keep this in mind ... the person that gives you your AZ test is not required to have an AZ license. They don't even have to have a G license. They only have to pass the test that says they know how to give a test. The proposed experts will be no different. The manual will tell them what they can and cannot do, and your case will be "adjudicated" accordingly. Input from the defendant will have zero bearing on the case. You could write a complete dissertation on your defense and its merits and it will be tossed in the garbage.

You can't even take a college or university course to become one of these "experts", so where do you suppose their training will come from? Clearly it's going to have to come from the government itself, most likely the ministry of justice, who exist primarily not to serve the public's interest, but to make the job of being a police officer easier. Do some research ... most, if not all, the laws written in the past 20 or 30 years have not been written for public safety. They have been written to make life easier for police.

When this system gets put into place, and I'm sure that by hook or by crook it will, regardless of what the public wants, watch the number of tickets written by police and MTO go through the roof.
 
Hey I lived in Oakville when it was a quaint lil village without idiots.
But I digress. The paper is good reading
I once had a justice of the peace in Orangeville that spoke 3 words of English as he was French Haitian
Mind you they are patronage appointments, the nice thing is apparently if you don't like the outcome of your phone conversation with one of these nice folk, the regular course of action will still exist.
I would not like to be a police officer, its a thankless job mere souls like us will never understand so I wont even comment on that
 
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