Saturday, October 10, 2009

The nanny state gone wild

Well I for one am certainly glad that the Ontario Provincial Police are unstinting in their pursuit of crooks, villains, evil doers, criminals of the highest order, and assorted other ne’er do wells. Why just last week they stopped a trucker on the 401 and charged him with … not speeding, or improper passing, or dangerous driving, or having an unsafe load, or road rage. No, they stopped him for smoking!

According to this article in The Toronto Star, the driver was pulled over and given a $305 ticket for smoking in the cab of his rig.

The man, who hails from London, Ont., was headed for Windsor when he was pulled over Wednesday along Highway 401 and given a ticket under the Smoke-Free Ontario Act.

The law, considered a Canadian standard-setter when it was passed in 2006, forbids smoking in all workplaces and enclosed public spaces, including buildings, structures or vehicles worked in or frequented by employees, according to the government's website.

What makes this so egregious is that it is his own rig. He’s an owner-operator and it’s his property, his home away from home. Yet the long arm of the state still thinks it has the right to reach in and legislate what he can or cannot do in his own property.

What’s next for Ontario’s finest? Will they be raiding my home office to see if there’s an ash tray on the desk? How about busting the farmer flouting the law by having a quick puff in the cab of his tractor? Oh and don’t forget those dastardly real estate agents who might want a quick nicotine fix in their car with the agent’s name and logo on the side – clearly a workplace in need of protection.

And while they’re doing that perhaps they could, if they get a chance, keep an eye out for the guys who have broken into several homes in this area over the past couple of months, or find the hit and run driver who put a friend’s son in hospital, or maybe even try to find some of those many missing native women. That is if they’re not too busy with important stuff like this.

And they wonder why respect for the law is decreasing.

5 comments:

Brian said...

Look on the bright side, they didn't tazer him for flicking his bic

Unknown said...

Now maybe they were looking for menthols or worse Craven A's.

We can't jump the gun on this, smoking is harzardous to your health and second hand smoke at 89.9kmph is a real problem.

It's good to know that the highways are safer now.

Canajun said...

I can just see it. Cop with Tazer in hand - "Drop that cigarette. NOW! Step away from the lighter. NOW!"

This is the kind of bullshit that makes my blood boil. A stupid cop enforcing a stupid law.

Anonymous said...

It's quite obvious why these types of laws are being made and enforced.

1. It's low, low risk for police officers.

2. It's a cash cow for the various levels of government.

3. Elected officials, having run out of actual useful things to do, have to appear to be "doing something". All that's left is further over-regulating of our lives.

Canajun said...

Anon:

Rather than having run out of useful things to do, I'd suggest our elected officials are looking at the useful stuff and deeming it too hard. So to justify their existence they come up with this BS.