Street racing declared unconstitutional
Posted under Comments on the law
Street racing and the Charter right to fundamental justice.
Stunt driving by racing was recently declared an unconstitutional offence by an Ontario judge, because exceeding the speed limit by 50 km/hr carries a potential jail term of six months, and because it is impossible to envisage any “due diligence defence”. The argument is this: because there is no conceivable explanation for driving so much over the speed limit, other than a necessity defence such as speeding to the hospital, it is a breach of fundamental justice to imprison the defendant for what is effectively an “absolute liability offence”. An odd twist of logic, I think. If it is so hard to envisage a legitimate reason why someone would be racing on the highway (i.e. that it is indefensible), why shouldn’t it be punishable by a possible jail term? I came across this case in my monthly review of regulatory cases for RegQuest, which I co-author with Justice Libman and Bernard Aron. It struck me as weird. The Crown is appealing: CBC story The citation is this: R. v. Raham [2009] O.J. No. 3669.