This case involves Doctor Benham Beheshti who was a physician at a hospital in Port Moody and lived in Vancouver. On August 30, 2015 he was on call and summoned to the hospital to treat a seriously ill patient. He was stopped for speeding on Pender Street and issued a traffic ticket by a member of the Vancouver Police Department.
Dr. Beheshti failed to dispute the ticket and was deemed convicted. He applied successfully to have the deemed conviction set aside and a have trial date set. He retained legal counsel and after last minute consultation entered a plea of guilty to the offence and was fined $100.00.
Dr. Beheshti wished to appeal this conviction on the grounds that his legal counsel was ineffective, that counsel failed to tell him that he was required to be present at the hearing, that he was entitled to the defence of necessity and that the judicial justice had erred in failing to grant him the adjournment requested by his counsel.
Mr. Justice Greyell decided that there were no special circumstances to support granting the application. Of particular interest is the following statement:
[32] The law, in my view, is clear that the offence of speeding is an absolute liability offence such that the defence of “necessity” is not available to Dr. Beheshti.
In short, there is no excuse for speeding.
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The existence of an "absolute liability offence" is an unconscionable bowine excrement.
Liability is always limited to the damages. No damages - no liability.
This is an example of the slavers' cage in our minds.
The only person who was taken from is the good Dr.
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An "absolute liability offense" or a "strict liability offense", pertains to the two fundamental parts of criminal law. A crime consists of two parts, the mental and the physical.
Mental, meaning a guilty mind, or the legal term "mens rea".
Physical, meaning a guilty act, or the legal term "actus reus"
In an "absolute liability offense" or a "strict liability offense", only the "actus reus" must be proven. The guilty act.
That fact that you were speeding makes you guilty. It doesn't matter a hill of beans if you didn't know you were speeding or if you thought you were exempt because of necessity.
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No victim - no crime.
Everything else is a failed attempt to cultivate a polite society. People need to quit putting up with being ripped off and start using their heads.
Instead people are simply submitting because its the "easier" thing to do. There are other ways to making society polite, i.e. arming its every single member.
So what that you've learned Latin, you are simply unable to see the simple truth that taking people's money for prescribed actions is financial slavery!
I know its controversial to say, but more and more I am convinced that we live in a functional anarchy with a guise of laws and regulations tooting its own horns for its achievements. Probably because I have been to so many jurisdictions over the past 2-3 years. I belive that in actually the majority of improvements (trends) would have happened with-out the majority of bureaucratic non-sense. Accidents would have gone down regardless of how many tickets there are issued - cars are safer due to manufacturer mandated improvements.
Violent crime would have gone down - because of lifestyle changes and societal taboo destruction and birth control in the 70ies.
Society functions not because of jurisprudence, but despite it.
We have so many laws now - we cannot see the forest for the trees: all we really need to do is love and respect one another.
Duty of care is the primary law that needs to be enforced on the roads.
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There is always an excuse