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Crown in Quebec won’t appeal rejection of evidence obtained through photo radar

Dec 28, 2016 | 8:15 AM

MONTREAL — The Crown won’t appeal a Quebec court decision that rejected evidence obtained from a photo radar machine.

One month after a woman was spared from having to pay a $1,160 speeding ticket issued from photo radar, Crown spokesman Jean-Pascal Boucher said his office will ensure the evidence it presents a judge in the future is admissible in court.

“We will not appeal,” Boucher said Wednesday. “In cases that are to come, we will take the necessary steps to ensure the evidence is admissible in front of the court and respects the rule of law.”

In November, Quebec court Judge Serge Cimon ruled police didn’t personally witness the woman breaking the law or check to see if the radar machine was functioning properly, making the evidence against her amount to hearsay.

“The prosecutor can consider this as formal notice that the evidence used in the prosecution of fixed photo radar cases is based on insufficient evidence,” he wrote in his ruling.

Boucher didn’t give too many details regarding what evidence will be admissible in court, but said it could include “documentation and witness testimony.”

Transport Minister Laurent Lessard said in November that photo radars are useful in ensuring security on the province’s roads and highways.

Justice Minister Stephanie Vallee has said the law allowing the permanent installation of photo radar and red light camera technology was endorsed by the provincial legislature in 2012.

Plans to expand the program were announced in 2015.

Jean-Francois Dionne, head of an association representing roughly 3,500 workers who install signage along the province’s highways, said more officers are needed on the roads.

Dionne said his members are in danger on the job because drivers don’t respect speed limits and more officers are needed to be witnesses to traffic violators and to ensure radar machines are properly calibrated.

He said Quebec’s highway safety code should be reformed in order to make the rules “clearer and easier to enforce.”

Giuseppe Valiante, The Canadian Press