KAWARTHA LAKES- A 13,000 km odyssey for a Yellowknife man has come to an end after charges against him were dismissed in a Lindsay court.
John McFadden travelled from Yellowknife, NWT to Lindsay, ON twice to fight a traffic ticket he says was unwarranted. The Justice of the Peace agreed and dismissed the charge.
It all began in September 2018 when McFadden, who has a valid NWT drivers licence, was driving on the road from Little Britain and was pulled over for speeding. He was charged with speeding but was shocked to be charged with Driving while under Suspension.
“It took the police officer 20 minutes-half an hour back at his vehicle and he said he found me to be a suspended driver in Ontario.’ McFadden explained “He couldn’t tell me why I was suspended, he didn’t care why, he didnt care that I had a NWT licence.”
McFadden later found out his licence was suspended due to three bicycling tickets that somehow went unpaid. McFadden says he doesn’t understand how that could happen because he was able to obtain a NWT drivers licence since 2014 and renewed it every year.
“In 2014 in NWT I paid all of my tickets and fines owing and got my licence. There are jurisdictional agreements with Ontario that means if you owe money for tickets in Ontario they won’t give you a NWT drivers licence. I don’t understand how this happened”
McFadden says he explained this to the police officer and told the officer he had no idea his licence was suspended but was handed a ticket anyway. He was facing a $1,000 fine and licence suspension.
The first time McFadden travelled 3,300 km from Yellowknife to Lindsay Ontario to fight the charge of Driving while under Suspension he was denied his day in court.
McFadden arrived at the Lindsay Courthouse on July 11th a few minutes before his scheduled trial time and was told there would be no trial.
“I showed up at quarter after 1 for a 1:30 court appearance, I forgot something in the vehicle and I came back and my sister goes, Johnny relax there’s no Justice of the Peace.” Mcfadden says. “The Crown Attorney said he was just notified at 11:30 am.”
Crown Attorney Leonard Smart explained it was a “scheduling error” McFadden says. A number of other people were also sent home at the last minute due to the error according to McFadden.
“Due to unforeseen illness, no justice of the peace was available to preside in the Lindsay POA court on July 11, 2019 and all matters had to be adjourned.” Jill Arthur for Ontario Court of Justice Communications Officer told Kawartha 411. “The Ontario Government appoints justices of the peace and  judges to fill vacancies in the Ontario Court of Justice. There is a current justice of the peace appointment process underway that will seek to fill vacancies in the Central East Region.”
In 2017 the Central East Region was facing a 30 per cent shortage of Justices of the Peace.  That led the ministry’s regional senior Justice of the Peace, Brian Norton, to relocate the Provincial Offences Court to Lindsay for a year. At the time there should have been 48 JP’s but there are 12 vacancies and three were on long-term disability. In one month alone 80 court sittings were cancelled.
The trial was rescheduled to December despite the distance McFadden would have to travel for a second time.
McFadden finally had his day in court on December 17th. Â The charge of driving while under suspension was dismissed. McFadden says the whole ordeal cost him thousands of dollars but it’s the taxpayers who are the real losers in this case.
“The taxpayers of Ontario have had to pay for court, court services, the Justice of the Peace etc. thousands of dollars to prosecute this then the officer tells the JP he thought the charge should be dismissed.”
“I can’t understand the motivation for this charge. If a driver has signed something acknowledging he’s suspended then you can charge him but if you can’t prove the person knew he was suspended you can’t charge them.”
It’s unclear what the law is around driving while under suspension.
“I’m frustrated with having to come twice for this. There’s a problem where you live with appointing people to be JP’s.” McFadden says. “You just have to have common sense.”
