Bill C19 Senate Hearings

[rosswood]

Use the following to connect directly to proceedings in the Senate Committee tomorrow (Thursday, December13th). Alasdair Robertson and several other representatives of various motorsports groups, including Targa Newfoundland and CASC-OR are scheduled at 10:45 A.M.

http://www.parl.gc.ca/Common/Committee_SenWebcast.asp?Language=E



http://216.113.10.94/Sen-A108-V-EN-VM

Ross Wood, RSO Secretary

[rosswood]

Yesterday afternoon, despite the presentations from the four representatives of Canadian motorsport groups re Bill C19 (Street Racing) , who were urging for an amendment to be included in the Bill exempting properly organized and sanctioned motorsport events, the Senate Committee accepted the Bill with no changes, took it back to the full Senate, pushed it through 3rd reading, voted to accept the Bill as-is, passed it on, and even had it signed by the Governor General all by 5:24pm. Signed, sealed, delivered and given Royal Assent.

Clearly it was a very high priority of the government to pass this Bill into law.

[GTRacer]

I just read Bill C-19 and I'm not sure I understand the implications. Is it that the demarkation between an illegal racing venue and a legal one is not properly defined?

[Rob McAuley]

A great description of the proceedings:

http://www.mco.org/cms/index.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=5970&start=37

...from the MCO forums.

[rosswood]

See the following excerpt from the report of the Senate Committee that heard
our presentations yesterday:


DONALD H. OLIVER
Chair

Observations to the Ninth Report of the Standing Senate Committee on Legal
and Constitutional Affairs
Your Committee is in favour of addressing directly the problem of street
racing in Canada. It has, therefore, approved Bill C-19 without amendment.
We do, however, have some concerns with how the bill may be implemented.
We understand that the bill does not apply to races organized by a
recognized sanctioning body and subject to all applicable laws. The Minister
of Justice told the Committee "Bill C-19 would not include legitimate motor
sport activities. It will not criminalize races that occur on closed tracks,
circuits, or streets closed to the public, or to rallies sanctioned by
recognized motor sport authorities and conducted in accordance with the
law." The Minister cited the Targa Newfoundland race as an example of what
would not be included in Bill C-19.
Your Committee therefore requests the Department of Justice to monitor the
implementation of Bill C-19 to ensure that it is not used to criminalize
currently legal, sanctioned racing. We request that a copy of these
observations be forwarded to the Department of Justice so that it may carry
out this monitoring function.



Clearly although we did not achieve what we were hoping for, there was
value in the efforts of Alasdair et al. They put a huge amount of work and
energy into this initiative. We owe them a large vote of thanks.

[tony mcgrath]

See the following excerpt from the report of the Senate Committee that heard
our presentations yesterday:

Clearly although we did not achieve what we were hoping for, there was
value in the efforts of Alasdair et al. They put a huge amount of work and
energy into this initiative. We owe them a large vote of thanks.

Heres my vote of thanks :)
I read the posting from Ferd, Scott Ellsworth et al. on the MCO forums. Quite a presentation!
At least they got the issues raised publically and the tag-on addendum was put forth.

I would also like to hear more about the other issue you mentioned Ross- re: the Targa this year...
"As an Organizer I will be giving very serious thought to whether or not I am prepared to bear the legal expenses of hiring a lawyer to argue on my behalf about the intent of the legislation and what the Minister of Justice and the Senate Committee on Justice had to say about the intent of the legislation. Anyone who thinks that this is being paranoid was not at the 2006 Targa Newfoundland event, where one particular police officer followed the entire event issuing countless summonses to Targa participants and officials, even repeatedly singling out a Targa car from a long line of cars to issue a summons."
How did that mess get resolved??

Tony

[rosswood]

That issue has not yet been resolved despite our repeated attempts to arrange a meeting.

[tony mcgrath]

That issue has not yet been resolved despite our repeated attempts to arrange a meeting.

So have all those competitors had to pay those "countless summonses"?:eek:

How does this bode for next years event?

Tony

[rosswood]

We are confident that this will be resolved. Targa has excellent support at various levels of provincial and federal government. Now we have on record direct endorsements from the Minister of Justice and the Senate with the assurance that Targa is recognized as legitimate and that it is not to be targeted.

[rosswood]

is posting is to bring people up to speed on what is happening following Bill C19 and to assure everyone that appropriate action is underway.

Alasdair Robertson made a very detailed report to the CARS Board last night about Bill C19. It included not only the facts of what happened, but also his observations about the situation that leaves us in and recommendations for future action. Probably the most significant statement he made was, " We are at the beginning of this issue, not the end." He sees potential major implications to follow, both politically and in practice. He sees it as affecting all levels of rally.

The next step is for each of the CARS Region Directors to take it to their Region Boards for discussion and action.

In the meantime things should carry on as normal with everyone (Organizers, Competitors etc) being certain that they are following all rally regulations and procedures very carefully. Competitors are reminded that at all times they must never break any Highway Traffic Act Regulations while participating in any motorsport event.