This editorial is an angry one. It's angry from the heart – and an angrier one from my considerably lighter wallet. I've decided to give up (certainly for now) on trying to knock down Ontario's ban on Radar Detectors: Section 79 of the Ontario Highway Traffic Act. This editorial is also a difficult one. I announced here almost a year ago that I was going for the jugular on this disgraceful Ontario law. Now, I am bowing out quietly. I will not go into details to reveal my strategies in case I ever do decide to take this up again. But I will reveal what I have learned about all the bad lawyers, idiotic Detector Manufacturers and appallingly bad judges that have had their way with me. By the way - according to Section 79, detectors and jammers are illegal in a vehicle in Ontario. Whether they're working or not. Broken or not. If it's a device designed to detect police speed measuring technology, it's illegal.

FIRST, THE LAWYERS: I knew going in this was going to cost a fair bit of money. Naturally, my lawyer underestimated/lied about how much it was going to cost. I asked him to state my chances of winning. I wouldn't proceed unless it was close to 50/50. He said yes, but probably not till I got to the Ontario Court of Appeal or Canadian Supreme Court. When I got the chance to be heard at the Ontario Court of Appeal $12,000 in legal fees later - he said my fight was going to get tougher. And I'd need a lot more money. I got a second opinion from another law firm. They concurred - yep - tougher. $3,500 please. Lawyers - without exception - will always put their own egos over their clients interests. Including their obsessive preoccupation in defending their opinions instead of listening to you or considering lateral thought. Worse, when they reach the prerequisite Ontario Law Society standards of greed, pomposity and evil - they become judges. Any lawyers reading this should smile knowingly. After all, it's just 99% of lawyers that give all the others their bad reputation….

RADAR DETECTOR MANUFACTURERS: I asked the Detector companies (manufacturers and/or their Canadian distributors) to help me out with legal fees. The market demand in Ontario alone would yield them easily $20 million in profit the first 2 or 3 years. That's PROFIT. Sales/cash flow would be triple - quadruple. They all said they'd love to - but no thanks. So I offered them a deal: I'll continue with all the legal bills and research - on condition that if I win and open up Ontario and any other banned province, they will pay me a small percentage. Cobra, Whistler, Beltronics (Bel and Escort brands) all said “Yes, let's deal.” When it was time to sign a contract not one of them played ball. They didn't return phone calls, they missed meetings, they said they will only deal on a handshake, no contracts, maybe this - maybe that, etc., etc.

VALENTINE: You think Valentines are stealth? SPECTRE can catch them easily, it got mine. And Mike Valentine would never take any of my calls or respond to my emails. I dealt with Pete Kaufman - his “marketing guy”. Pete was sympathetic but could not get Mike to answer my calls. They don't ship to Ontario any more because too many got confiscated at the border. Yes, they'd love the Ontario market to open up, but... Thanks Mike, you schmuck.

BELTRONICS: These guys are huge. They own the Escort and Bel brands and engineer and manufacture them right here in Toronto. I got sympathy and shrugs from the president at head office in Ohio (but he wouldn't help) and the broken promises and missed phone calls described above from their two distributors in Canada.

Beltronics is legally allowed to manufacture and ship to consignees out of province. They pay $millions in income tax and business tax. Aren't we glad that Ontario government gets a piece but also makes sure that they keep us safe by not letting us use them? There has never, ever been any credible study that shows detector users have more accidents or fatalities than non-users. In fact, two studies – MORI in England and Yankelovich Clancy Schulman in the USA have shown that detector users have fewer accidents.

It stinks of illegal lobbying and payoffs by the manufacturers. A comparison: You can't posses heroin - it's dangerous. You can't sell heroin - it's dangerous. You can't manufacture heroin - it's dangerous. Now: You can't have a radar detector in your car in Ontario - it's dangerous. You can't retail a radar detector in Ontario - it's dangerous. But you can manufacture them and ship them out of province to kill people in Alberta, BC, Saskatchewan and the USA. Hey - that means we can manufacture Teddy Bears and stuff them with arsenic, asbestos and broken glass as long as we ship to places like South America and Africa that don't have the same toy codes as we do.

My friends - if there was proof that detectors caused more fatalities and accidents - I might be in favour of banning them too. Don't the people of Alberta, BC, Saskatchewan and the USA love their children just as much as we do? Why don't they ban them? Great Britain had a ban but reversed it; Alberta had a ban in 1978 and REVERSED it in 1987. If there was credible proof that detectors cause anything except fewer tickets, Alberta would ban them fast and so would the other provinces and the 49 states that have no problem with them.

THE JUDGES: The first judge - in Ontario Traffic Court - is a Justice of The Peace. Her name is Ms. Doelman. A Justice of the Peace has no real legal training. They are court clerks. Not lawyers, yet every day they hear cases and pronounce fines. It's astonishing. Her written judgment was incoherent. It contained misquotes and so many errors in law that it could be a textbook case study of an illegal judgment. Next, in our 1st Appeal, the judge - a Mr. Griffen didn't just find a loophole to judge that the Ban is OK - he found a trapdoor. Chicken ****. He didn't want to deal with our arguments so he broadstroked with some judgment that we have no Constitutional rights when driving a car. Guess what? You do. All of them. Truth is, only a very senior court - ie. Ontario Court of Appeal or The Canadian Supreme Court - would recognize this and be willing to pronounce a law illegal. And it takes a lot of time and money to get in front of these courts. Judge Griffen could have done the right thing but just passed the buck. In fact, when we were presenting our arguments he said, and I quote: “I can't believe no one's challenged this law before!” But when he read his judgment a few weeks later - he made it quite clear that my only recourse was to further appeal.

CONCLUSIONS: 1) I did further appeal it and I was offered my day in court with The Ontario Court of Appeal, just one step away from The Supreme Court of Canada. I declined to go. The Detector Manufacturers were still hemming and hawing and wouldn't commit to paper on a percentage deal even after verbally agreeing to do so. Without a signed agreement I'm not prepared to make them millions for a sharp stick up the *** in return. They haven't legally sold a detector in Ontario in 30 years (or Quebec and the 5 other banned provinces). They will continue not to. The last time someone offered to put $20, $30 plus million dollars in my pocket - and only asked for tiny percent of it back, I returned phone calls. This case is dead.

2) We are simply at the whim of any bad judge on any given day. They can choose to ignore your valid legal arguments, rule against you, and not let you say a word. They do let you appeal to a higher court - where with lawyer's fees and court charges it costs you insane amounts of money. Most give up. I did.

3) If you study our revered Charter of Rights you'll find it gutless and effectively worthless to anyone but grandstanding politicians. If you've read any scholarly critiques of it by George Jonas (he wrote Munich, the basis of Spielberg's last movie) and others, you will understand. It has changed virtually nothing in Joe or Jane Average's ability to get something done about a fundamentally bad law. Don't get me started on trying to change things through the provincial parliament. The charter offers no fundamental property rights or economic rights like in the American constitution and Bill of Rights that actually recognize that our people's daily business is business. The charter – and its current interpretation by judges - offers no easy recourse to provincial laws like Section 79 that are clearly set up to grab extra revenues and specifically written to sidestep the Charter. The Ontario government can pass a law that says you can't wear red underwear while driving a car. The Ontario government can pass a law that says Ted Woods can't own a car dealership. Impossible to believe? You have very few real rights in this country. I have seen hardcore proof of this. God help you if you ever really have a beef with the government.

CLOSING NOTES:

1) Except for the Bel STi, do not use a radar detector in Ontario or Quebec. Police have hundreds of SPECTRES to sniff you out. They are good at it. Be careful with the STi, even if they can't see it electronically, they can see it on your windshield, dashboard or visor, especially in a convertible. They are using stealth unmarked Chevies, Toyotas and Nissans to cruise beside you. The manufacturer of SPECTRE is currently working on an update to sniff out the STi. STi's useful days in Ontario may be limited

2) Early on in this case, I sent requests to members of 20 car clubs in Ontario asking for financial help. They all stood to benefit from the removal of the Ban. I got lots of sympathy, empathy and not one cent. Except from 2 members of our Viper Club who donated to my legal fees. I believe this does say something great about the spirit of this club and heart of the people who support it.

3) I am not a good enough businessman to have persuaded the Detector Manufacturers to see the tens of $millions in profits open to them by just offering a fraction back to me. If anyone here has the time, patience and business savvy to get these dimwitted slugs on board, I would be ready to go at it again. Probably more than anyone in Ontario, I have the knowledge on how to get the ban overturned. Call or email me any time.

Sonny Stone: 416-871-8992, sonnystone@shorecreative.com