Pellerin Takes Brave Stand On Law: WHOPPER WATCH

Published 07/09/2023 · Updated 07/09/2023

whopper.watch .12.26

“I am not in favour of people behaving illegally.”
Brigitte Pellerin, Ottawa Citizen

Who says there’s not enough provocative journalism out there?

Post-Pellerin column we’re expecting a wild unrelenting outbreak of legality out there. People will start stopping at stop signs. The Ottawa Police Service will begin enforcing the law. Cyclists will obey the rules of the road. Ex-mayor Jim Watson will apologize for his testimony at the provincial light-rail inquiry. The planning department won’t change the official plan to accommodate Lansdowne 2.0 before city council has approved the project. The city will stop giving free money to rich guys. Bears will stop do-doing in the woods.

Stop the madness.

Go out and jay-walk somewhere. Make a bit of noise after the city dictated time of 11 p.m. Just to show that Ottawans can be illegal like in world-class cities. God bless you.

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Pellerin’s astonishing stand morphs into we might be spending more money on catching transit fare jumpers than collecting fines. Then she says the $150 fine might be too much. A disconnect there, perhaps?

And then, her cure for fare-jumping is to make transit free. That way, fare-jumpers will be forced to find something else to do illegally, flying in the face of Pellerin’s brave stand above.

You know I’m always interested in how people are so generous with other people’s money. You know, your money or, for that matter, my money. Of course, the argument is that paying for transit creates financial woes for the disadvantaged. Then she infers that the disadvantaged are the fare jumpers. Not sure about that. They look pretty spry to me.

Maybe there’s a better means test than universality. Something a tad more complicated than paying for transit for rich guys and poor guys. Let’s cut out the rich guys in this largesse. But then we give a lot more to rich guys through Porsche initiatives and Lansdowne gifts.

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Your agent will now take a brave stand a la Pellerin. Rich guys should not get free transit. There … I said it and I stand behind it.

OC Transpo’s operating budget is about $372 million. Chump change for a big-hearted woman such as Pellerin.

So rather than use my money to pay for rich guys’ fares, why don’t we use Pellerin’s money?

You want it. You pay for it.

Ken Gray

Digital image on front created by AI generator DALL-e.

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Tags: free fares OC Transpo Ottawa transit

Andrew Zenner says:
07/09/2023 at 1:21 PM
Pellerin would probably be equally as happy with what some U.S. cities have done to cope with shop lifting which has been being made virtually legal in some U.S. jurisdictions as long as under $990 which is only a misdemeanor. Instead of actually arresting and jailing habitual shoplifters, several U.S. cities seem quite happy to see stores close up completely or alternatively put everything in locked cabinets and then actually fire the odd employees who try to stop shoplifters. Pellerin is proposing a similar solution to dealing with fare jumpers. Penalize everyone else and ignore the actual crime.
Ron Benn says:
07/09/2023 at 7:41 PM
The concept of free is an illusion. Precious little is free. Someone pays. The question is who. Ms. Pellerin just wants a free ride (pun intended) for every service she uses. For the services she doesn’t use, the concept of use pay is mandatory.