On the bright side... at least this is consistent with theory of "government knows best". Also consistent with the crowd that wants to ban or take away anything that MIGHT hurt someone in the wrong hands. Amusing to read some of the comments on the G&M website - some of the strongest advocates for gun control are against this.

> take away anything that MIGHT hurt someone in the wrong hands.

In this case, is it something that MIGHT hurt someone, or something that is MEANT to hurt someone?

There is always a silver lining in every cloud. The good news in this story is that there is apparently someone left in Onterrible with enough after-tax disposable income to actually be able to spend money to pimp their ride.

Cannuckistan indeed.

It depends on the definition of "modified for street racing". If there is an objectively true definition of this, then the government is doing us all a favour by taking such cars off the streets.

It's no different than seizing illegal substances.

We're not allowed to drive a car that has failed emission standards, so how would this differ from that?

Cars that are checked and deemed unsafe are taken off the road; how does it differ from that?

Street-racing is especially heinous because it is a wifull, intentional activity, and innocent people are usually its victims.

Provided there is an objective definition, and they are not just penalizing people who have cars with powerful engines, I'm in favour of it.

I'm afraid for my children's brains, that they may someday be poisoned/hurt by the opinions spewed from the CBC. It's obvious what should be done..

Not only is it wifull, it's willful, not to mention wilful too.

I despair for my country at times, but have little sympathy for Torontonians. Just like the palestinians (I don't capitalize it because they're neither a 'state' nor a 'race'). Anyway, as I was saying, just like them the populace has gotten what it wished for.

Man, I'm gonna buy some stock in a company than manufactures vehicle trailers, because I know of thousands of people who drive their cars Monday to Friday, and then race them on weekends.

Or the many thousands of 'rides' out there that we see at every 'show n' shine'. There's some serious horse-power in those things.

Or are we gonna have somemore bureaucrats deciding by some arcane points system as to what the 'intent' of the vehicle is before deciding to send it to the crusher.

I swear, we're becoming more like Russia than the U.S., each and every day.

Well, you know, if ONE innocent pedestrian or ordinary driver can be saved ...

Looks like CANADUUHH has been taken over by the realy dim witted jerks and the wackos whinning about this global warming poppycock bull kaka

some more time and only donkeys in ontario allowed

The Minority Report. Pre-Crime... Orwell didn't think far enough ahead...

pun'dit: watch the language, please.

Oh sure, I'd like to ban all our problems, but that's never worked before, so why start now?

I think it's important to pay attention to the central point in Sean's post. This isn't about whether or not one misbehaves via a high-power vehicle on the public streets; that is and should be an offence.

This is about being the owner of a high-powered vechicle, on a public street, even if one is not misbehaving. Even if one is innocent of any reasonable offence, even if charges haven't been laid and a race has not taken place. Even if one is driving down a public street, calmly, slowly, and without error, on the way to the race track.

Down that road lies deamons. The concept of innocent until proven guilty has evolved for a reason. If we deny the concept of responsibility, a priori, then we suffer the loss of responsiblity, ipso facto. As Boris Yeltsin said: "Everything which was not permitted was forbidden. Whatever was permitted was mandatory. Citizens were shackled in their actions by the universal passion for banning things."

Meanwhile, we have silly problems like some idiots with loud motorcyles making it impossible to carry on a conversation on Whyte Avenue on a Saturday afternoon. Will city council enforce the existing noise bylaws to charge the miscreants? Of course not. But they will consider banning motorcycles, even quiet ones. Why? Because they are stark raving bonkers.

Pay attention: punish bad behaviour, not unindicted property ownership, else ye risk the wrath of the gods.

So does this include the souped "chasecars" the OPP uses? You know the ones on the 401,well,when they aren't protecting the natives at Caledonia from the lawful landowners?

Out of curiosity, what are your thoughts on banning smoking in public places?

Assuming you are speaking to me, MN, perhaps I can respond with this previous essay I wrote on the matter, since it's getting late and I want to keep things short.

If we want to make tobacco illegal it is simply a matter of scheduling it in the relevant federal drug act, just like we do for cocaine and marijuana, and could for alcohol or caffine. As long as tobacco remains legal in Canada, Edmonton City Council is justified only in regulating, for the common good, the municipal commons circumstances in which public use of tobacco may occur. Council is not justified in abusing the Municpal Government Act of Alberta to unconstitionally deny citizens their freedom of association for the purpose of enjoying legal tobacco.

Before Edmonton's new anti-smoking bylaw, 17% of the restaurants in Edmonton allowed smoking, and 20% of Edmontonians smoked. Smoking was prohibited in the context of all essential services. Nobody was forced to be a customer or staff of any premises where smoking was allowed. In what way was that distribution of services, to people as they choose, unfair?

Shouldn't our government be doing its level best to come up with mechanisms by which people with differing personal views are accommodated? Isn't that what a pluralistic society means? Why can't tobacco aficionados just go over into their little corner of society and be left alone?

If I want to smoke my pipe at the Klondike Days Parade, I'll wet my finger, figure out the wind direction, and smoke downwind of everyone. Can't you rabid anti-smokers be as gracious, once we've gotten out of your way? City council's rudeness in going so far as to ban private functions established for the sole purpose of enjoying the occasional cigar or pipe (along with a little port and stilton) suggests not.

The freedom to choose whether or not to participate in private voluntary endeavours is, in Canada, assigned by the Charter to the individual citizen. Canadians work together to ensure that our fundamental freedoms are not hijacked by the state in the idealistic pursuit of some unattainable utopia.

For example, a few percent of society is gay, yet we seem to be able to accommodate their freedom of association, even though some people find some of their behaviour to be artificial. A few percent of society is aboriginal, yet we seem to be able to accommodate their freedom of association, even though some people find some of their behaviour to be neolithic.

And yet, strangely, even though far more Edmontonians are tobacco aficionados, some people want to deny their freedom of association, because some people find some of their behaviour to be artifical, or neolithic. Shall we close the bath houses? Shall we close the sweat lodges? Shall we close the cigar clubs? What about public houses? What about churches? What about second-hand bad parenting?

People can accept a lot of restrictions on the commons in the name of getting along, but only to a point, after which there are all sorts of nasty names for those kinds of tragedy of government. Defining private establishments that provide non-essential services as being part of the commons is something our government should not do.

City council has overstepped the bounds of peace, order, and good government in the drafting and application of the new smoking bylaw. Edmontonians know that absolutism in the drafting or application of the law is not good government. Yet we have at hand the evidence from council's handling of the smoking lounges at the Canadian Legion, at the Keep It Simple club, and on aboriginal property.

It is wrong for city council to subvert the course of good government so as to attempt to deny behaviour that is legal and is protected by the Charter's clause 2 guarantees of the fundamental freedoms of belief, speach, association and assembly.

The responsible behaviour for council at this time is to rescind bylaw 13333 and return to the drawing board. Council's duty is to come up with regulations that (1) accommodate those who want to be secure from tobacco smoke, and (2) accommodate those who want to associate and assemble for the purpose of legally enjoying the company of fellow tobacco afficionados.

Never forget the words of John Stuart Mill: "Neither one person, nor any number of persons, is warranted in saying to another human creature of ripe years that he shall not do with his life for his own benefit what he chooses to do with it. All errors he is likely to commit against advice and warning are far outweighed by the evil of allowing others to constrain him to do what they deem his good."

We must all stand on guard against those who would violate our Charter's belief, speach, association, and assembly guarantees. We must not tailor our laws to placate a clique of anti-tobacco zealots riding around in the pockets of a cabal of opportunistic litigators. Zealots do not respect the rule of law in a tolerant democracy, they besmirch it. We don't want to do that.

Tolerant democracy isn't about endorsing a dominant ideology, it's about accommodating multiple perspectives within the law. If council and their advisers in the administration are telling us that they can't do that, then they are not earning their keep.

Cars adapted for street racing can be seized and destroyed, even if charges haven't been laid and a race has not taken place, Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant said Wednesday

Bryant might love his family and his dog, but that position is still pathetic in someone who ostensibly is charged with ensuring the freedom of citizens.

"People shouldn't be afraid of their governments, governments should be afraid of their people." V for Vendetta (Movie)

About time that the politicians got some backbone andset about to make the streets safer. Anyone who has that little intelligence that they will spend the big bucks to set up a vehicle for street racing deserves to have it confiscated. Next is to go after the manufactures who are clearly advertizint their high powered crap.

About time that the politicians got some backbone and set about to make the streets safer. Anyone who has that little intelligence that they will spend the big bucks to set up a vehicle for street racing deserves to have it confiscated. Next is to go after the manufactures who are clearly advertizing their high powered crap.

It's about time that the government did something about automobiles whose sole purpose is to kill pedestrians. As a physician I see the devastation caused by automobiles on a daily basis from vehicular trauma to deaths from diabetes and MI's which are directly the result of automobiles.

Registration was tried with automobiles but it has proved be be an utter failure and prohibition appears to be the only solution. There is no need for anyone who lives in a large city to own an automobile and all of Canada's major metropolitan centers should be designate as automotive free zones in which the only vehicles present would be driven by police, the military or highly screened individuals who require them for work purposes (like doctors). Every individual who would want to drive in a city would be required to undergo a yearly psychiatric examination and licensing would require the approval of the individuals spouse who would be questioned if there had been any history of violence or road rage. Once an individual has been cleared to own an automobile, they would need to apply for a fuel acquisition certificate (FAC) which would allow them to purchase fuel and records of all fuel sales would be kept. If they wished to travel, they would need to apply for an Authorization to Travel (ATT) which would allow an individual licensed to posess an automobile to drive certain routes which would be specified on their ATT as well as the hours during which they would be permitted to operate the motor vehicle. In order to ensure compliance, each vehicle would be fitted with a GPS system so that the police could ascertain if the vehicle was being driven in accordance with the terms of the ATT.

Penalties for vehicular crimes are far too light and mandatory minimum sentences should be imposed for various vehicular offences. Unsafe storage of a vehicle should result in a mandatory 2 year jail sentence. The operator of such a dangerous piece of machinery should ensure that it cannot be stolen and this would require removing all four tires and the battery of the vehicle when it was not in use as well as mandatory steering wheel locks. Any unauthorized modification of the vehicle should also be severely punished. Certain vehicular modifications have no possible use among civilians such as large capacity gasoline tanks, camoflage paint schemes or bulletproof glass. Mere possession of a large capacity gasoline tank should result in a mandatory minimum sentence. All vehicular crimes should fall under the criminal code.

The advantages of severely restricting vehicles would become apparent very soon. Convicted felons would no longer be able to acquire vehicles either legally or illegally and such crimes as drive by shootings would be a thing of the past. Thieves would be restricted to carrying their loot on foot or on bicycles and would be easy prey for police who would travel in vehicles. The epidemic of obesity which threatens the Canadian population with extinction would be reversed as people would be forced to walk. This would result in immense savings to the health care system and the cost of automotive related diseases is estimated to be over $500 billion/year in Canada alone.

Within a generation Canada can become automobile free and the envy of other countries who are under the control of the death-dealing automotive lobby.

Lemm see, john...faster, more agile, better handling, meticulously cared-for cars make the streets more dangerous.

Yup. That makes sense.

It also means I oughtta get a civic medal for my 94 Taurus wagon...I don't even think of street racing that car.

loki: with regulations as well thought out, easily and clearly understood and well-intentioned (not to mention unarguably justified) as that, I see no reason to impose minimium sentences at all.

Best to simply execute offenders. Ignorance of the law is no excuse. I daresay your proposal lacks boldness as it stands.

Wow. What are all the folks with BMW's going to do. Those mothers are fast. Or stock Hemi Chargers?

I am going to buy a supercharger for my M3, then spend my last dime taking this one to the supreme court. Of course I will die penniless in prison for challenging this shaft of brilliance. My death more proof for these geniuses that high performance kills.

You can go ahead and throw this law onto the bonfire of liberties with all the other laws against non-crimes, thought-crimes and pre-crimes which people have been sucked into supporting.

It should be clear yet from the Caledonia fiasco, the GTA greendoggle - err, greenbelt - gun control, the War on Drugs and a thousand other government scams, that seizing property and instilling fear in the populace is the purpose of government, and not an accidental side effect of its self-appointed job "helping" people.

I couldn't be bothered reading the CBC article, but I'm sure they have some heart-wrenching quotes from victims of street racers, leading people to conclude that if you oppose this law you are a heartless fiend who wants to see little girls run down in the street. "Let us expand government or you'll kill little girls" ... now where have I heard that before?

posted by loki "highly screened individuals who require them for work purposes (like doctors). '"

Hilarious. Commissar loki has decided his profession should be excluded, even though we all know Doctors don't make house calls. I guess he needs his car to drive to and from hospital once a day. Everyone else with a job has to take a bus to theirs.

Loki, your eminence, your are a selfish, self centred, self important, unprincipled goofball.

Best to simply execute offenders. Ignorance of the law is no excuse. I daresay your proposal lacks boldness as it stands.
Thanks for the suggestion Ron. Execution seems rather wastefull, though, and I think that we should look at the Chinese example and use automotive criminals as organ donors. This would result in huge benefits to the medical system and would make up for the shortage of organ donors that would occur once automobiles were no longer as prevalent.

"Anyone who has that little intelligence that they will spend the big bucks to set up a vehicle for street racing deserves to have it confiscated."

Stop it. You're scaring me. Next you'll be confiscating someone's stereo system for having too many watts of power. That throbbing you feel in your chest from the bass in the car beside you has just got to be bad for one's health.

Bye, bye ATV's, snowmobiles and personal water craft. Those things are killers.

"Anyone who has that little intelligence that they will spend the big bucks to set up a vehicle for street racing deserves to have it confiscated."

Stop it. You'r scaring me. Who made you czar?

Next you'll be confiscating stereos you consider too powerful. That throbbing bass from the car behind you thats making your chest vibrate just has to be bad for your health.

Bye bye, ATVs. So long personal water craft and snowmobiles. People cannot be trusted to behave in a responsible manner, so away with you.

Meanwhile, it's the same fools who base their decisons on 'feelings' about things they've decided they don't like, rather than any common sense. These are the same fools who would block the Conservative's proposed bill calling for minimum sentences for serious crimes. CONSISTENTLY Give convicted street racers serious time and the loss of their vehicles and you'll suddenly see far less of this crime.

Apology for the double post. The second is a 'rebuild' of the first, which I thought I'd lost before posting.

loki: of course. My thinking was well-directed but insufficient. I was looking only at the savings; dead people have low maintenance costs. I missed the organ-donor factor because I wasn't thinking generously enough or with enough foiresight.

Please direct me to the nearest correction center. My shame is unbearable. I owe my fellow citizens so much more.

loki: you can't fool me; you are pimping for Minister of Health in the comming new Dion Government; aren't you?

I think we need a new movement to ban people who want to ban things.

I had to laugh at the tough talk. Something like .. * or their fast cars will be crushed into a cube shaped block of scrap*, or something similar.

There are two types of *Power Car* owners.

The responsible owner has a sleek powerhouse ride, but would never risk a street race.

These guys show up at Mission raceway on the weekend, open out the side exhaust ports and are careful to take every safety measure in organized drags.

The brightest of our leaders have a certified way to determine the difference between these two types.

They will carefully approach the suspect muscle car with an extended devining rod and thus crush only the *proven* street racer*s vehicles. 89% accurate. Guaranteed!= TG

From "thought crimes" ( 'Hate Speech" )

to

"car crimes..."

Who'd a' thunk it?

From "thought crimes" ( 'Hate Speech" )

to

"car crimes..."

Who'd a' thunk it?

so, the folks who brought us Caledonia, contraband ciggy crisis, 15% of Ontario's population with no family doctor, depression in eastern Ontario, tourism industry declining at a rate of 12% per year, etc, etc, etc, are now going to become self-appointed experts on "racing" cars????these idiots should get their heads out of their a$$es and focus on real problems, not these pseudo smokescreens designed to distract the voting public from chimpy mcliars real track record...but knowing the idiot trawna voter like I do, it will probably work.....LIBRANO MORONS!

All part of Ontario's crackdown on men and masculinity. Where is the ban on talking on a cellphone while driving, which causes more accidents than street racing?

My car right from the factory has a speedometer that goes to 220 km/h. If the government finds out can they confiscate it?

Oh great.

Now we live in a province where actual criminals--those who have been proven guilty of street racing in a court of law (supposedly)--get next-to-no punishment, in the form of house arrest in their parents' mansions, but where those who have not been proven guilty of street racing in a court of law, but are only suspected of being about to street race, can be decreed guilty and are punished.

McGuilty-Land is truly beyond parody. The most ridiculous juxtapositions are already in place.

Oh great.

Now we live in a province where actual criminals--those who have been proven guilty of street racing in a court of law (supposedly)--get next-to-no punishment, in the form of house arrest in their parents' mansions, but where those who have not been proven guilty of street racing in a court of law, but are only suspected of being about to street race, can be decreed guilty and are punished.

McGuilty-Land is truly beyond parody. The most ridiculous juxtapositions are already in place.

Geothermal can't you recognise Loki's sarcasm, which was brilliant.

As shown by the recent court decision here in Toronto when you do kill someone through street racing there is no punishment anyway. Two years house arrest allowing the 2 killers to attend school doesn't sound too onerous does it, if so as they promised not to do it again, maybe we could lighten it up a bit.

Awesome loki!

Actually that sounds like North Korea... nice clean streets!

In a similar vein to Loki, I'm concerned about the potential for the expression of bigotry and racism in blogs. I think everyone who owns a computer with internet access should have it seized and crushed, lest they be tempted to write something bad or double-plus-bad in blogs. /sarc off

In a more serious vein, I am concerned about politicians, particularly those with socialist or communist leanings. Their ideologies are loaded with concepts and practices that are inherently bad for society. I think that any politician who exhibit socialist leanings should have their brain confiscated and crushed.

Back in the good ol' days we took our drag races out into the country and bagged the crap out of our engines and ourselves and only had to be worried about being skinned alive by Pop when we threw a rod or blew an engine.

These damned asians and nine irons are racing their bloody piss burners at high speed in residential areas. And because none of 'em can drive, they are causing major carnage.

My small town has turned into a big city in the last 40 years, and now, every night the screaming engines go all night long down the minor street behind my house. The speed limit is 60 clicks. That goes on until about 1:00 or 2:00 at night. Then there are the sirens and the ambulances adding to the racket.

I can live with all that; but what galls me is that these street fighter pilots usually take somebody with them when they erase themselves from the gene pool.

We need to take driving seriously. Running stop signs and red lights should be right up there with drunk driving. And racing in residential areas is a no brainer too.

In addition, we need places for these people to race. Something affordable where everyone can take part. As it is the Nanny State is just begging for rebellion from the young hellions that just want to enjoy some motor sport.

Crushing cars is just going to make more enemies for our cops.

How typical of a liberal government to declare war against things, rather than the people who use them. If Michael Bryant wanted to take useful action against these maniacs who street race, he should be demanding his Provincial Court judges sentence them to the maximum possible under the (new) law.

This idiocy will never get off the ground, btw. Where will it stop? Are they going to start crushing those classic Camaros/Chargers etc. where the (40yr+) owners have spent hundreds of hours souping up old '350s or '383s, but don't race them? Why not go after stock 'Vettes & Porsches? Hey! I've seen a couple of Lambos & DB7's here in the GTA: better flatten those too, eh?

Can you imagine the Toronto Police hooking up some Rosedale lawyer's 911 & hauling it off to the wrecker, because it's capable of doing 150 mph?

And not to harp on an old and tired subject, either, but - of course - none of this would be possible if Canadians were protected by a Charter of Rights worth the paper it was written on that guaranteed property rights.

mhb23re
at gmail d0t calm

In a country, where a school principal thinks that her school policy is superior to the Charter and Criminal Code, and where a school board superintendent thinks that the laws should not be taken literally, everything is possible for a provincial AG. This fucking country is full of people, for whom lawmaking is a part of life, despite they never ran for a public office.

If anyone seriously doubt's loki's scenario could happen, IT'S ALREADY IN PLACE (for gun owners).

On a related note the Ontario government will intern all males between the ages of 16 and 25. This should prevent most of the cars from being built in the first place.

If they were that serious about road safety then they would seize the cars of those convicted of drunk driving. But then again look at the demographic of those convicted of drunk driving vs. street racing; if I was a lefttard I'd be squeeking about racism right now.

You know, there has to be a way to use this to confiscate GOVERnMENT vehicles and their minions.

You know call in a tip on the MPP XYZ ( or his son) has a "powerful street racer" (tm) ....are about to race, or some high power lawyer with an M5...fool him into showing up for a street race.

Heck. It's almost tempting to buy a clapped out racer, and rev the engine a couple of times at a light to get it confiscated, surely somewhere there's a couple of lawyers willing to go after the government on this.

What legal morons we have.

Michael Bryant is a walking, talking ego, with HUGE leadership aspirations. This is very much like his pit bull ban. A perfect example of more heat than light. This government is looking for anything to get its name in the news.

Where is Bourque and the Conservative sponsored NASCAR RACE-car?

But the people of Ontario still vote them in.
Don't you think this is mentality of entire population?
If it walks like a duck - it's a duck. The people who would disagree with confiscations w/o court process would not vote the liberals in, but they do, which means it's fine by them.
Is there a plug in Ontario that we can pull to sink it?

If convicted....crush the drivers.....sell the cars at public auction; keep a few for bling-bling counter activity by the police.

"Geothermal can't you recognise Loki's sarcasm, which was brilliant."

I wasn't drunk when I read Loki's comment, but I read with the focus of a drunk. After my blood pressure had come down to 165/110 I read all of his post and laughed my head off. Brilliant yes indeed. Loved it. He's still a goofball though, and I say that in a most laudatory way.

Regarding the old maxim "ignorance of the law is no excuse," I post this commentary by James Madison from Federalist Paper #62:

To trace the mischievous effects of a mutable government would fill a volume. I will hint a few only, each of which will be perceived to be a source of innumerable others.

In the first place, it forfeits the respect and confidence of other nations, and all the advantages connected with national character. An individual who is observed to be inconstant to his plans, or perhaps to carry on his affairs without any plan at all, is marked at once, by all prudent people, as a speedy victim to his own unsteadiness and folly. His more friendly neighbors may pity him, but all will decline to connect their fortunes with his; and not a few will seize the opportunity of making their fortunes out of his. One nation is to another what one individual is to another; with this melancholy distinction perhaps, that the former, with fewer of the benevolent emotions than the latter, are under fewer restraints also from taking undue advantage from the indiscretions of each other. Every nation, consequently, whose affairs betray a want of wisdom and stability, may calculate on every loss which can be sustained from the more systematic policy of their wiser neighbors. But the best instruction on this subject is unhappily conveyed to America by the example of her own situation. She finds that she is held in no respect by her friends; that she is the derision of her enemies; and that she is a prey to every nation which has an interest in speculating on her fluctuating councils and embarrassed affairs.

The internal effects of a mutable policy are still more calamitous. It poisons the blessing of liberty itself. It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man, who knows what the law is to-day, can guess what it will be to-morrow. [Emphasis added.] Law is defined to be a rule of action; but how can that be a rule, which is little known, and less fixed?

Another effect of public instability is the unreasonable advantage it gives to the sagacious, the enterprising, and the moneyed few over the industrious and uniformed mass of the people. Every new regulation concerning commerce or revenue, or in any way affecting the value of the different species of property, presents a new harvest to those who watch the change, and can trace its consequences; a harvest, reared not by themselves, but by the toils and cares of the great body of their fellow-citizens. This is a state of things in which it may be said with some truth that laws are made for the few, not for the many.

In another point of view, great injury results from an unstable government. The want of confidence in the public councils damps every useful undertaking, the success and profit of which may depend on a continuance of existing arrangements. What prudent merchant will hazard his fortunes in any new branch of commerce when he knows not but that his plans may be rendered unlawful before they can be executed? What farmer or manufacturer will lay himself out for the encouragement given to any particular cultivation or establishment, when he can have no assurance that his preparatory labors and advances will not render him a victim to an inconstant government? In a word, no great improvement or laudable enterprise can go forward which requires the auspices of a steady system of national policy.

But the most deplorable effect of all is that diminution of attachment and reverence which steals into the hearts of the people, towards a political system which betrays so many marks of infirmity, and disappoints so many of their flattering hopes. No government, any more than an individual, will long be respected without being truly respectable; nor be truly respectable, without possessing a certain portion of order and stability.

To put this point more succinctly, there's something a little off about the statement "Ignorance of the 100,000 pages of laws and regulations (up from 95,000 pages last year!) is not an excuse."

So if Mag Wheel Maggie Trudeau was drunk drivin her blown Hemi road runner instead of her Mercedes, like the last time, would she still be able to beat the rap using her commie husbands charter??
Hmm!

So people who would modify their cars to make them faster and handle better would have them taken away. Ok. What do we do with the folks who buy a stock 'Vette, 340Z, Euro Super Car or Viper? These cars are all capable of blowing the doors off of any but the most extreme of the type of cars that are described in the article.

Onatrio's AG gonna go to GM, Ford etc etc and tell them what type of cars they can design now? That ought to work out really well for him.

Bryant is a militant uncivil dystopian...you know the type...300 million people fill graves from this type as they force the utopian dream into reality.

I constantly warn people to stop voting along partisan lines look past that to what the candidate believes the purpose of government is for.

It is obvious in Bryant's case he feels the law is his personal weapon to arbitrarily execute all the things he disagrees with...or to create crimes where there are none.

I Bear in mind this is the talking sphincter that wants to confiscate legally owned firearms because his group identity politics won't allow his 2 tired justice system to get a handle on ethnic crime groups.

I remembered this as I listened to sound bites he made yesterday at a photo op... Bombastic hyperbole intended to dehumanize and degrade his intended targets....fast customized cars were compared to deadly drugs ( another problem he can't cope with)...speed shops that sell performance parts compared to "crack houses"...kids who street race compared to "dealers in death".

I gagged thinking there was a poli in this country so unafraid of his contempt for charter rights and civil property laws that he would spew this type of Bolshie/nazi bombast to the public.

The bottom line, when we cut through all the social engineered veneer on this, is that this man and his premier, run a regime which is totally contemptuous of property law and the rights of property owners...or even due process.

Randy Hillier and the farmers in the property rights movement were the first to feel it, then lawful firearms owners now motorists with customized sports cars......and for those in denial who think these uncivil abominations of law, process and charter rights only target the afore mentioned politically stigmatized groups, I have to remind you our court system is based on precedent…..if the government gets uncontested convictions where it has arbitrarily seized property on hear-say and destroyed it without due process or compensation, then this will become legally acceptable in spite of what the charter legal rights say about it....that means that by extension they can do the same thing to any property you own...the precedent is set…the kleptocratic police state becomes eminent.

Best not let them creep past the restraints of the constitution in the first place...it is the only thing holding police state douchebags like Bryant back...and doing a poor job of that by all accounts.

Dystopians like Bryant are reckless and dangerous to a civil society...they are a virus that infects civil freedom...voting them out after they have damaged our freedoms and endangered our property is not good enough...this just encourages more dystopians to fill their place. What is needed is that anti-constitutionalist barbarians like Bryant who swagger like dictators and abuse authority have to made an example of.

In an earlier more civil age in Canada, when justice was pure and the law was not the exclusive possession of dystopian autocrats, a thug like Bryant would create an angry mob (think of them as a dedicated constitutional vigilance committee assuming civil oversight of elected officers who stray from acepted civility without punishment of the courts)…this mob of outraged citizens would remove him from office forcibly and either tar and feather him or treat him to some other well deserved public humiliation to pay for his uncivil politicing….hopefully while dystopian wannabes looked in at their fate.

I know a guy who's going to be really p1ssed he can't keep his GT40 anymore. Or his Ferrari, his Lotus, his Porche...

Oh but wait, those are't -modified-, are they? They are merely supercharged/turboed factory original speedmobiles.

What are we talking here, I'm ok if I buy the 600hp Shelby Mustang, but if I buy the GT and drop a blower in it I'm an eeeevile street racer? What as pile!

And hey, what about bikes? Perhaps now would be a bad time to relate my youthful adventures on the Gardiner Expressway, blowing the doors off whale-tale Porches on my RZ500. During morning rush hour. If I put a Hayabusa sticker on my bike am I a street racer? How about Dunlops and race shocks?

Must be an election year. Instant issue created from nothing, pure vapor. They bust a couple punks for street racing (who can't affort a protracted legal battle, surprise surprise), crush their cars live on TV, wave the big stick around and look like heroes to the masses of @sses in Moronto. Perfect Liberal campaign.

As an aside to all the people who seem to be in favor of this, mainly Richard Ball (unless he's being sarcastic like Loki) I'd like to ask you this: Do you really think this sort of thing only happens to other people? If they can jack your car right out of the driveway, they can also come and get your non-compliant refrigerator. Or your dryer, or your computer, or your whole house, or... YOU. You have nothing they can't take. If it can be taken, sooner or later some greedy pig will come and take it.

So can these bozos direct as much effort into dealing with .....oh let's say Organized Crime ..... Gangsters ....... Terrorists!

Un freaking believable.

One of the early posters was right... Orwellian pre-crime.

Loki neglected to mention, that ATT would require any driver to travel from point A to point B on the shortest and straightest route possible, any deviations would be dealt with thru harsh penalties.

As a post script: There have been few Canadian politicians I despise and have contempt for more than Bryant...Alan Rock was one, Trudeau and of course most BQ who support national socialism.

The common thread is these people are all "dystopians"...those utopians who's whacky dyslexic social theories and uncivil activism create a vast regulatory gulag of society and further the approach of the police state.

They are dangerous people ( at least to those of us who value civil liberty and freedom...don't know what most MSM-conditioned Canadians think...never know what a sponge thinks).

To me, this militant social engineering agenda has got to be literally kicked out of our polis if we are to ever regain respect as a free democratic people.

Bryant and his type can only exist in a diseased democracy where the will of the majority is subserveient or treated with contemptby tyrants who trade places every 4 years.

This type of vehicle seizure has been in place in Saskatchewan since 2002.

Not for racing though. For cruising in bad neighbourhoods.

Civil liberties be damned.

I wrote Chris Axworthy about it at the time, but I guess most other people thought that it would be a good idea to give up freedom for safety, so the law went ahead.

http://www.gov.sk.ca/news?newsId=d421903c-f2a3-42f7-a710-70fd1372ca6c
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2006/10/23/johns-alberta.html
Now most of these cases are over turned.

So now its street racing. How soon until it is houses. Guilty before innocence with the police being the law makers and judiciary. What a society.

Is it April the first? This is so stupid it is laughable. I watched a (slightly) similar story last night on Fox. It seems that the impounded cars of CONVICTED street racers in LA are crushed while the racers get to watch. Big difference.

So, will they take away TG's electric car if he pulls up to the lights and revs the hampsters? Will American tourists stand to have their car crunched by Ontario's big brother guvmint? I'm almost embarassed to say I was born in Ontario (northern). That province is stuck on stupid.

Texas, its an election year. Gotta have something to fool the dummies with.

Heric Holmes, I direct your attention to Caledonia where the Ontario government expropriated the Douglas Creek Estates rather than uphold the legal owner's property rights against invasion.

I'd like to add that the proximate cause of street racing is zero race tracks in the Toronto area. As far as I know the nearest road course is Mosport and the nearest drag strip is Cayuga. We don't even have roundy-round racing except on dirt. So Lefties, where are Toronto kids supposed to go racing?

It seems you have too much Librelium in Ontario. Librelium is a light fluffy element, that binds well with Newdemocratium for form an unstable, volitile substance known as Governmentum Incidius. Exposure to either Librelium or Newdemocratium can cause severe over-reaction to any stimulous and is confirmed to reduce intelligence. It is widely known that the only way to remove Librelium or Newdemocratium is to use copious quanities of Conservativium over several years.

Dog help you Ontario, we have room in the west for people of the conservative persuasion.

Every election the degenerate Liberals have to create some "evil" to launch a "ban".

It is a deep insight into lib-left thinking....essentially they are visionless theorists who provide textbook solutions from their theoretical dogma to real world issues...the fact that most things in life do not fit the narrow template of leftist dogma is meaningless to them...they forge on building the perfect Dystopia.

DYSTOPIA:

A dystopia (from the Greek δυσ- and τόπος, alternatively, cacotopia,[1] kakotopia or anti-utopia) is a fictional society that is the antithesis of utopia. It is usually characterized by an oppressive social control, such as an authoritarian or totalitarian government.

Dystopian politics are often characterized as one or several types of governments and political systems. These systems include, but are not limited to, fascism, bureaucracy, socialism, chaos, anarchy, totalitarianism, dictatorships and other forms of political, social and economical control. These governments often assert great power over the citizens, dramatically depicted in 1984 as the authority to decree that 2+2 did not need to equal 4.

Ontario is not so doomed as I thought.
I sent an email around the office today and the people, who I would expect to vote liberal, came by in the kitchen and said in horror how shocked they were and how stupid Bryant sounded to them.

Phantom said: "I'd like to add that the proximate cause of street racing is zero race tracks in the Toronto area. As far as I know the nearest road course is Mosport and the nearest drag strip is Cayuga. We don't even have roundy-round racing except on dirt. So Lefties, where are Toronto kids supposed to go racing?"

Well this is an abomination according to the left ( who calin to be guardians of all that is Canadian including snowbound sovietism) I heard some degenerate dipper yapping on Addler yesterday that car racing and NASCAR are "unCanadian" and environmentally irresponsible...we see that dytopian attitude in the Bryant announcement.

Motor sports are from the evil "motor" culture to the south...see a pattern here? Is this not how Canadian Bolsheviks demonized firearms possession and the shooting sports?

There is a race track in Cayuga, the only one I can think of. There should be some near Windsor as I was told. Pretty damn far from TO.

Sorry if my post raised a few people's blood pressures, but to find out what the situation is like for gun owners in Canada, one just has to replace every automotive reference in my post with "firerarm". I didn't include the involuntary "inspection" provisions of C68 that apply to anyone who has the temerity to own >10 firearms.

It wouldn't surprise me if statist morons like Bryant are using the precedent set by C68 to push other social engineering projects. C68 is one of the most odious pieces of legislation ever passed in Canada and allows the government to arbitrarily seize personal property. If one looks at death rates caused by inanimate objects, then automobiles are clearly far more dangerous than firearms and it was just a matter of time before the government saw this.

The Phantom, I love the idea of convicted street racers having to watch their cars being crushed.......... so long as it is from the back of a prison bus!

Doesn't this idiot Bryant realize that the first prosecution under his proposed law will be taken all the way to the Supreme Court under a Charter challenge, and will in all likelihood lose big? Don't these fools get legal advice? Fascist moron.

BTW, big props to Loki for his inspired piece of satire.

What's all the fuss? I've been passed on a solid yellow line countless times by young teenage idiots in highly-modified cars.

Where we used to live we were often deafened by the endless noise of after-market mufflers that were installed on hondas etc, while the kids driving them raced (over 100km/h on a 50km/h road) down our road.

In fact the noise was so awful I used to relish the idea of their cars being crushed, so I'm delighted it's actually going to happen. Can I press the button on the machine?

Sure, there are responsible people who modify their cars, but as always the few idiots ruin it for everyone by providing an opening through which the Liberal left can force its awful policies.

Anyone who did not see the humour and sarcasm in Loki's post has obviously new dealt with the Canadian firearms bureaucracy. I thought it was quite funny.

In Ontario, I would be like public enemy #1. I own high performance cars (that have never been in a street race) and I own handguns (that have never killed anyone).

I wish I could get a handle on what is wrong with the people in Ontario. Why do you keep electing these fools? Is it something in the water? Did I mention that I love it here in BC?

All I can do is shake my head in disgust.

@WL Mackenzie Redux:

Those were stirring words you've written. It may be that this 'bad thing' law has gone beyond the point of joking about how thick-headed the Liberals are.

BTW: here's a one-liner that some of you might want to put in play in Librul county: "Are you referring to a bad object that you can't afford?"

"Cars adapted for street racing can be seized and destroyed, even if charges haven't been laid and a race has not taken place, Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant said Wednesday."

Well, it's about time!!

Society needs many more individuals with the prescient capabilities of the likes of Mr. Bryant.

We could post them to stand watch at the entrance to our banks to prevent bank robberies. Arrest the suckers even before they walk into the bank.

We could use them to screen applicants for marriage licences, and prevent countless failed marriages and costly divorce proceedings.

We could use them at the gates of our educational institutions to keep slackards and dimwits out of the class rooms, thereby saving society millions of wasted dollars.

We could use them to screen political and high level bureaucratic candidates , to ensure that society isn't burdened by the dishonest, the incompetent, and/or the megalomaniac control freaks which plague their ranks today.

And on and on.

Brilliant.

Bravo Mr. Bryant!

Keep up the good work.

If modified includes wearing out tires 'til they're bald, looking like racing "slicks", then we have a problem.. :)

TJ: Your papers, please, citizen!

We Ontarians have been subject to McGuinty and Bryant's dog and pony show for too long; it goes something like this.......

White girl gets shot = ban guns (aren't they banned anyway?)
Bad dog bites man = ban dogs (but not bad dogs, just certain types of dogs)
Idiot kids recklessly cause death of man = ban fast cars (not punish those who speed but it's the car's fault or video games, we're not sure)

None of this is ever pre-emptive and is always reactionary. Bryant and McGuinty pick issues which are not incredibly controversial as they want to make us believe they are doing soemthing.
Why not ban the production of tabacco as it proves to cause cancer and kill thousands of people a year? Wait, we make money on taxing cigarettes right? Never mind then.

BTW: I have a banned dog and a potentially banned car (stock '05 V6 Mustang) I think they're doing this just to get me to move.

Look at all these responses! I guess the Conservatives were right to try and sponsor a Canadian NASCAR car in the circuit! Tories love talking about their cars. To bring this back to the issue at hand, what does "modified for street racing" mean? Does that mean the Grand Prix? Is the Conservative Part of Canada - a sponsor to one of the weapons of death - going to be charged for encouraging "street racing?"

This law is right up with the pitbull ban - remember that?

Well these idiots got away with it with bill 132

"14. (1) Where the circumstances in clauses 13 (1) (a) and (b) exist and it would be impracticable to obtain a warrant because of exigent circumstances, a peace officer may exercise any of the powers of a peace officer described in section 13.
Same
(2) In this section, exigent circumstances include circumstances in which the peace officer has reasonable grounds to suspect that entry into any building, receptacle or place, including a dwelling house, is necessary to prevent imminent bodily harm or death to any person or domestic animal."

all for a dog.

I.E no search warrant, so this is communist Canada and even Calgary has a poll to see if they should also follow. As someone else posted, even China has property rights in its constitution, but they don't keep trying to convince themselves that they live in the greatest country in the world.

the "car junkies" won't be wasting their money on juicing up their cars.so what mr bryant they will just race them in stock condition a bit slower i'm sure but until some serious punishment for those convicted of street racing is handed out by the courts not much is likely to change.your just blowing gas out your liberal exhaust pipe mr bryant.just my 2 cents worth folks.

The Calgary poll, the start of dictatorship.

http://calgary.ctv.ca/servlet/HTMLTemplate

Here's some more vapor from Dalton.
http://autos.canada.com/news/story.html?id=9a4a1223-e670-438a-956f-ba50b783110a

For once I agree with McSquinty, though he'd be appalled at the idea I'm sure. A car IS like a loaded gun. Perfectly safe unless you point it at your head and start fiddling with the trigger.

McSquinty should try embracing the concept of arresting criminals instead of confiscating property. Works 'way better I hear.

Vitruvius:
Will city council enforce the existing noise bylaws to charge the miscreants? Of course not. But they will consider banning motorcycles, even quiet ones. Why? Because they are stark raving bonkers.

In fact I have been a victim of motorcycle banning. I attempted to ride the famous and ritzy 17-mile drive near Monterrey CA a couple years back. Was stopped at the entrance as motorcycles had been banned, presumably because of some a-hole Harley lookie-me weekend warriors. I knew it wouldn't work but I did make a faint effort to get the guard (yes, it was not unlike a E Berlin checkpoint) to concede that my sport-touring mount was as quiet or quieter than most cars. It was a very deflating and humiliating experience for a hardcore Libertarian.

Regulators like one-size-fits-all rules (banning) because they are simpler and easier from a compliance point of view. They also prefer tormenting the compliant because, er, they comply without complaint.

Sort of related: I ride a 1300cc 145 HP motorcycle in the same way and at the same mostly lawful speeds as my prior 90 HP mount. However, I am now much safer in that I can escape much more nimbly from dangerous situations, and my passing time is considerably reduced. I have also completed several advanced riding courses, but of course none of this can be accounted for in the binary regulatory mind.

Hey Pissedoff....look who's running the city now...a Liberal premier wannabe douchebag Liberal and a gagale of pseudo Libranos on council.

I'm tellin' ya you gotta get Liberalism under control in that province like you did rats....like rats being devistating to AB's grain crops, Liberals will be devistating to the province's productive wealth engines and free laissez fair socity...crippling it with a regulatory gulag..... and like rats they hide under cover and devour resourses and breed out of sight...in Albeta Calgary and Edmonton city councils are a breeding grounf for liberal rodentia.

look at Onterrible ferkissake you want that out there?...just keep electing these incognito liberals in the city and under the PC banner

Too bad Mr. Bryant can't apply his infinite prescient wisdom to charge the thugs at Caledonia. Oh well, I guess it's all about punishing the innocent law abiding masses now, and protecting the rights of thugs and criminals, that's what really matters in the Liberal scheme of things.

Again, keep up the great work.

When do I get to vote these @$$holes out of office?

People who think they have the right to micromanage other people's lives, who think they have the right to ban everything they don't like, are people who should be locked up or deported to some gulag somewhere so they can benefit properly from their own mindset...

it's time to put these people out of our misery.

No Kidding, Huh ? Gona crush pimped out home-made hotrod street cars ?

Man, how are those Asians, Blacks and Hip-Hop White Boys gonna get to work ?
,

"Man, how are those Asians, Blacks and Hip-Hop White Boys gonna get to work ?"

They work..?????????

It takes a very special kind of mind to arrive at confiscation and destruction of private property as a response to criminal behaviour!
Very special indeed!

@pissedoff:

Where'd they get the idea for that part of the lawr, Dirty Harry?

Posted by: OMMAG at June 21, 2007 4:09 PM

"It takes a very special kind of mind to arrive at pre-emptive confiscation and destruction of private property as a response to potential criminal behaviour!"

There, OMMAG. Fixed that for you.

Great 1-line summary of the whole Orwellian scheme.

mhb23re
at gmail d0t calm

You want my Toyota Echo, Mr Bryant?

Molon labe!

From my cold dead hands!

Humph.

Lickmuffin:

Regrettably, inevitable liberal confiscation of all privately-owned firearms will indeed make your "cold dead hands" an unfortunate reality.

This half-wit was appointed by Daltoon McGimpy. (Need I say more?)

"We're not allowed to drive a car that has failed emission standards..."

You're allowed to own it, though. See a SLIGHT difference there?

Here is my question: What happens if the car is financed by say, the Toronto Dominion Bank. They will have a lean on the car. So when the kid who may or may not have done anything illegal has his car completely and maliciously destroyed by the Liberal government of Ontario, will the Bank in it's right to demand they be charged for destroying what amounts to their property? The kid isn't going to want to keep paying for something that was stolen. Would his insurance company have something to say about his claim? Ahh, maybe I just think too much.

Leave Ontario now ... come out west and take one of the many jobs available in Alberta and BC.

Leave the insanity of Liberalism behind and help us keep the West from moving that way.

The is no economic future in Ontario and Quebec other than what they can continue to extort from the provinces with a future.

Come on out ... you will love it here. It's freer and cleaner and our immigrant are apparently a lot more civilized than yours.

the governor of California visited Ontario not to long ago and now Ontario would seem to be bringing in very similiar policies on street racing as the ones in the golden state.you can even attend the "crushing"if your up to it.Arnie and Mc Guinty what a team or is it possible mr bryant thought this whole approach up himself.you folks in Ontario would know the answer to that one.

TJ,

Technically, at least with the HTA in morOntario, it's not illegal to pass on solid or double solid lines. Only if it's unsafe to pass. Seriously.

Just an FYI and this info comes straight from one of the most enthusiastic (traffic and towing of unsafe vehicles) cops I work with.

een

These proposed actions by the Ontario politicos, (who do not engage in independent thought at all, just work with whatever the pollsters tell them is a hot issue), are the result of a number of recent deaths that have resulted from street racing. The public is outraged, cops and their political masters are foaming at the microphones in their quest to catch the wave of sentiment.

However, a few weeks ago, a couple of well heeled kids with well connected fathers were given a period of house arrest for driving their Hi priced and Higher powered German cars at 140 KPH on a city street and killing an immigrant taxi driver. Slap on the wrist.

Several more dead people this past week resulting from street racing and then June 21, a pair of twenty-something year old visitors from the USA are caught racing a matching pair of Corvettes @ over 200 KPH through heavy traffic on the busy 400 Highway.

They have been arrested and while I am confident that they too will receive a slap on the wrist, I would love to have the franchise to sell tickets to an event at the SkyDome where a Monster truck plays Patty Cake with those two confiscated Vettes.

May not be "fair" rough justice rarely is. But being nice and understanding and all squishy about the crocodile tears and insincere apologies ain't working.

I don't think the local PD is going to be sneaking around at night inspecting Hyundai's for Nitro bottles but they would love to have some real toothy offences to site whenever they get their hands of some pinhead whose tire pressure is greater then their IQ. If I have to choose sides, I am with the Thin Blue line.

Why the uproar just over cars? The "conservatives" in Ontario enacted legislation that allowed for the seizure of homes and other real property without charges being made if the owner is suspected of being involved in "gangsterism".

Why the uproar just over cars? The "conservatives" in Ontario enacted legislation that allowed for the seizure of homes and other real property without charges being made if the owner is suspected of being involved in "gangsterism".

"Several more dead people this past week resulting from street racing"

Tom

I live in Kingston and I don't remember "several" people being killed in the past week. Yes, some were injured in one incident involving street racing and a truck driver was killed evading a racing car, but not several.

While I share your outrage that a couple of kids got away with murder, that fault lies with the judge who handed down the sentence. I agree we need tougher sentencing for these kinds of crimes, however, we should not allow our anger to get so out of control that we allow the government to bring in laws that takes away a persons presumption of innocence, no matter what the crime is.

'The more exaggerated the imposition of law and order is on the lower classes in a country, the bigger the crooks are at the top.'

Now, what party is running Ontario?