While spending the morning in traffic court I was startled by the Crown prosecutor’s own admission “that nobody ever wins a photo radar case in St. Albert.” This was disturbing to me. I had noticed a small discrepancy with the location of my violation and believed in the justice system. I felt confident the court would see fairness. I prepared, took time off work, took extra location photos with the proper address and patiently waited to state my case.
Boy was I wrong, guilty as charged. Even though the operator had the wrong street address, the date, time and photo were enough. Convictions in St. Albert only need to prove 75 per cent of the case for a conviction rate of 100 per cent.
So beware of the words. “On and about” or “In and around” they are just legal words for “close enough, speeders.”
Please save your time – don't go to court and accept that your legal rights are not important. We have no right to question photo radar, period.
Matt Diederichs, St. Albert
