Coping With Runaway Car Theft

"If  you're shameless enough to prey on other members of the community for your own reckless gain then  you'll lose that privilege [to own a valid driver's license]."

"We've seen ... in Manitoba, that they have implemented something similar with a five-year suspension." 

"The [Ontario] Highway Traffic Act has instances where you can lose your license for life as well."

"It's about sending a strong message to people in this province that we're taking this seriously. We're doing everything we can under the provision of the provincial government to come down tough on those ... who decide to break the law."

Ontario Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria

This is a still image of surveillance camera video of a high end car theft in action. The Ontario government will introduce legislation that would suspend the driving licences of convicted auto thieves. (Supplied)

In the province of Ontario a vehicle is stolen every14 minutes. A 78 percent increase in violent carjackings has taken place in the past three years. The phenomenon of vehicle theft costs the province a yearly $1.2 billion. Compelling the province to attempt to enact a new law that would be as painful to the carjacking perpetrators as their actions have been to the owners of the vehicles and the provincial government.

 

A ten-year license suspension would apply in the event of a conviction of theft (any other penalty such as fines and jail time added to the suspension). In the event of a second such offence, an additional 15-year ban on driving would apply. A lifetime suspension would reflect the penalty of a third similar offence. The new law is set to be introduced imminently to the Ontario legislature, in the hope that the stringent new penalties will stem the tide of auto thefts.

At present, driving with a suspended license could earn a car thief a $5,000 fine along with six months' incarceration. Ontario, according to the province's solicitor general, has been appealing to the federal government to enact minimum sentencing rules for car theft. Inspections of outgoing cargo from Canada, particularly at the Port of Montreal, where recently hundreds of stolen vehicles were  apprehended from leaving the country, should be increased in an effort to keep stolen vehicles from being shipped out of Canada to points abroad.

"This is something the federal government can do today if they want to do, and we're calling them to do just that", emphasized Solicitor General Michael Kerzner. The question was raised during a news conference: "Where's the incentive for the manufacturers to make a car that can't be stolen with a $200 online key fob duplicator?"

A complicating issue is that auto-vehicle theft gangs employ young thugs to perform the actual thefts. It would then be the young thieves who would face conviction in a court of law, and pay the penalty for their crimes, while the criminal syndicates and their heads face no such penalties unless they can be linked to the thefts. It has also been noted that the profits from the sales of the stolen vehicles are then used to prop up the real purpose of the gangs' actions; smuggling of arms and ammunition into Canada.

One of the lines in this year's budget targets a growing crisis in Ontario and across the country. Auto thefts have skyrocketed in recent years with the element of violence also increasing.   CBC