Wednesday, June 08, 2011

Civil rights . . .

ACCORDING TO THE CBC, Nova Scotia Registry of Motor Vehicles are in need of some oversight: "Man has licence revoked without driving conviction".

Wilbur was never convicted. His case was dismissed, but he still can't get his licence back.

Time to sue the NS Registry and the people he contacted, who work there, for personal damages in a civil suit for violation of civil rights under our Constitution?

1 comment:

Jim said...

Interesting case. First, is this a question of civil rights? Driving, as we were all told in driver ed, is a privilege, not a right.

But there is a right not to be treated capriciously or unreasonably. In particular, we have a right not to be so treated by people exercising the power of the state.

In addition, there is a thing called "fairness." This is a technical legal term meaning, "the right to make a full answer and defence to the charges against one."

In this case, it would appear that the RMV has based the decision on information that has not been given to the person affected. That's a serious matter. You cannot defend yourself unless you know what the case is you have to meet.

It does not appear that there are national security implications in this case. What excuse does the RMV have for not disclosing the accusations against him and allowing him to respond?

For all that, he does seem like a bit of a jerk. It's possible that the RMV is correct and that somebody has a little problem with road rage. They need something better than "possible" though, if they are going to lift his licence.