PM announces tougher laws on street racing
CTV.ca News Staff
Prime Minister Stephen Harper unveiled new measures to crack down on street racing, announcing his plan in B.C., the province many consider the street racing capital of Canada.
"Let's be clear, street racing isn't about kids having fun. It's reckless, dangerous, and all too often it kills," Harper said. "That is why our government will introduce legislation to tackle this serious problem head on."
The legislation will be introduced this spring. It will make street racing a Criminal Code offence that will come with stiffer sentences for those convicted of street racing.
The legislation will also introduce driving prohibitions for those who are convicted.
The announcement makes good on efforts by Chuck Cadman, the late Surrey-North MP who tried to push through a private member's bill for tougher sentences for those convicted of street racing.
Cadman passed away in July, 2005, after a two year battle with skin cancer.
Just before the 2006 election campaign the former Liberal government promised a similar bill in Cadman's honour, but it was never brought forward.
Harper said he believes the new legislation will achieve the goals Cadman was working towards, and said his widow, Dona Cadman, has been involved in the process.
He said he met with Cadman in his office last week, and made her aware of the coming changes.
However, reporters at the press conference claimed Cadman did not know about Harper's scheduled announcement.
Harper made the announcement at the RCMP's B.C. headquarters. He praised the RCMP's work and said the new legislation will strengthen its ability to charge those who break the law.
"Canada is a great country and one of the things that has made it so has been our traditionally low rates of crime," Harper said. "The RCMP has been instrumental in bringing about these low crime rates."
The announcement is the most recent plank in the government's crime crackdown. Earlier this month the government introduced legislation that ends conditional sentences for serious crimes and set out minimum sentences for gun crimes.
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how about pitch in some money to build "race parks" using the same logic as skate parks?
I do hope this pushes them in that direction to more tracks closer to the city. The problem with ALL tracks so far is that they are so far away.
Another 'perfect' reason to have the Conservatives elected and the f***ing liberals out on their asses. They did 'nothing' for this country and 'as we all see or some decide not to', are doing things that should have been done a long long time ago. Not to mention all the campaign promises have been kept, rare thing for Canada....
I like this, I like this alot...... about time there's harsher consequences here in Canada.
i don't feel sorry for street racers.
tho it is true that there aren't many accessible motorparks, but that's probably a lot due to noise (and in BC, the lack of flat and straight land :P), there are other ways to get your racing joneses in...
like auto-x..
sure it's not drag racing, but kids are gonna have to learn to steer sooner or later.
haha they want us to travel 30minutes to race on a tiny piece of crap oval?
nah ill stick to the docks at 3am
I think making tracks more accessible would help solve the issue. But there will always be people that refuse to go to the track, and for those people I think there should be harsher punishments.
just wait until you make a quick pass, get pulled over, and get charged with 'street racing' by some zealous cop who wants to show how much revenue he can bring in for the city
that's a dangerous law IMHO because it bet its very open to interpretation. surprised you guys aren't up in arms.. chalk this one up right next to the insurance co crap that canadian drivers should be up in arms about
Yup, I for one am terrified of what this crackpot is going to come up with, and how the police are going to apply it.
Not a good idea, like Naz said, way too open to interpretation. I actually did get pulled over for speeding and charged with street racing ( and I actually wasnât!) but the cop thought because of my car that I was.. Now of course I got off with it when I fought it in court (I love being a girl! haha) but this law= baaadddd idea! :rolleyes:
It's a crock. Canadian event insurance stipulations are ridiculous, at least as far as Ontario goes. It's near financially impossible to bring a controlled racing environment to anywhere new in Ontario because of all the steep regulations you have to follow. You have to provide medical personnel, check all participating cars... try and set up a "track" day and see what happens.
Better yet, why don't we just ask Rich (GapBoyPCS)? I'm pretty sure he knows the inner workings of the SVTOA On-Track meets.
Street racing has been around in different parts of the continent for over 70 years. It's not going away tomorrow because El Commandante Harper says so.
Also, I don't like the reference that he's defending the "Canadian way of life". Are all Canadians supposed to drive like 90 year-old, nearsighted senior citizens? Are we supposed to lose all passion for our vehicles?
Perhaps if Harper put more effort into actually cleaning up the country's infrastructure, building a proper coast-to-coast highway system and did something serious about serious crimes (the lack of punishment for rapists, pedophiles and murderers in Canada is appalling... STILL), I'd have more respect for him.
Until then, he's a means to an end for GWB's Canada-as-the51st-state agenda.
it's a bit troubling of a law, but there's not a whole lot I can do now.. we voted these guys in...
but if I ever get accused of street racing, I'll fight it to the death... because I don't...I go with the flow of traffic.
darkpuppet,May 26 2006, 09:24 AM Wrote:we voted these guys in...
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Speak for yourself.......
darkpuppet,May 26 2006, 01:24 PM Wrote:it's a bit troubling of a law, but there's not a whole lot I can do now.. we voted these guys in...
but if I ever get accused of street racing, I'll fight it to the death... because I don't...I go with the flow of traffic.
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you drive a hotrod, you're on the hit list. Hard to defend you're not a " street racer " with a go fast toy under the hood. They'll pull out all the stops in making you less credible to make an example out of you.
we're being descrimintated against! :)
It's hard to tell how tight or loose a definition this law might have, based on the comments of a politician - probably premature to worry about how it might be interpreted before seeing the actual wording.
I think the point that's being missed here is that what we're talking about is a federal criminal law - as opposed to a provincial motor vehicle statute.
I think the point isn't so much to lower the bar in terms of what constitutes street racing, but rather to provide a consistent standard throughout the country that all police forces can rely on; a standard that is in fact more well-defined than say, "dangerous operation of a motor vehicle."
It also means that if you're convicted of street racing it's a record that will stick to you a lot tighter wherever you may go in the country.
It seems to me that the feds are merely affirming what the vast majority of the population already believes ... that racing on public streets is criminal behaviour that requires a different set of penalties over and above the every day traffic violation.
If you're a driver that doesn't street race I don't see how you are in any way disadvantaged by this law ... and if you are, first of all STOP IT ... and secondly if you're caught and convicted maybe a stiff fine and/or a stint in jail and a criminal record will help you see the light of day.
S2,May 25 2006, 02:04 PM Wrote:Not to mention all the campaign promises have been kept, rare thing for Canada....
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Didn't they promise to lower the GST? <_<
SVT ZX3,May 26 2006, 10:17 PM Wrote:S2,May 25 2006, 02:04 PM Wrote:Not to mention all the campaign promises have been kept, rare thing for Canada....
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Didn't they promise to lower the GST? <_<
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They did, takes effect in July and some places are offering 6% GST right now
nass,May 27 2006, 06:55 PM Wrote:They did, takes effect in July and some places are offering 6% GST right now
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Ford of Canada is rebating the 1% difference beginning a couple of weeks ago ... it's a prgram they're calling "Great Savings Time" - how cute.
microbunny,May 27 2006, 11:51 PM Wrote:go hitler!!
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fixt