Chris Weisdorf was penalized for parking improperly in December 2017 and he decided to fight the fine. But he slammed up against legal structures that give virtually unchecked power to untold numbers of administrators around the world who oversee and enforce everything from parking regulations to public-health edicts.
The parking-ticket system in Toronto, Ontario — where Weisdorf had committed his offense – had been replaced with an Administrative Penalty System (APS). The bylaw creating APS was billed as streamlining the court system. After very little public consultation and notice it was approved overwhelmingly by Toronto city council in July 2017 (there appears to no longer be a record online of the council vote).
The bylaw contains Orwellian redefinitions designed to wriggle traffic- and parking-law violations out of the category of what the Supreme Court of Canada views as criminal offenses and into the administrative category — and along with that, defendants out of the purview of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which is the core of the Canadian constitution.
The bylaw’s redefinitions include calling offenses ‘infractions,’ defendants ‘customers’ and parking tickets ‘parking violation notices.’ And in what Weisdorf calls “a legal oxymoron for the ages,” monetary penalties are deemed to be ‘not punitive.’
Another aspect of Toronto’s APS is that court hearings have been eliminated. In their place are Administrative Penalty Tribunal hearings. There, defendants essentially are seen as guilty unless they can prove themselves to be innocent. Moreover, tribunal officials aren’t required to have legal training. And the city staff who issue parking penalties aren’t obligated to attend hearings; as a result, it seems, none have ever shown up. (more...)
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