It's a confusing section of the code, but if a police officer gives someone a ticket, gives an indigent person a ticket, the person.... We're making a lot of assumptions here. I'm assuming that the person doesn't pay the ticket because they are poor. They may not even show up in court.
Clause 54 says if an accused fails to pay the amount set in the ticket within the period set out in the ticket, the accused is liable for that amount and a conviction is to be entered in the judicial record of the accused. So an indigent person who doesn't show up in court for their ticket—and this happens every day; Canadians don't go to court when they get tickets—a conviction is entered.
Once that conviction is entered, paragraph 54(1)(d) says the accused has 30 days after the day of the conviction to pay the amount set out on the ticket. If they don't do that, then subclause 54(2) says if after being convicted the accused pays the amount, then it goes into the fact that their record is kept separate and apart.
I still say this section leaves open the very real possibility that indigent Canadians, unless they go to court—and in many cases they will not hire a lawyer, they may not even be able to represent themselves properly; they may not even know to say they can't afford the fine. It leaves open the possibility there's a structural flaw here in the bill where the way that your record is treated is all dependent on your ability to pay the fine. I'm not saying people go to jail for not paying fines. I'm saying that every day in this country indigent people get ticketed and they get a fine of some type, and they don't pay it. I don't think it's fair or right that we treat the way their criminal record is protected by whether or not they pay a fine.
The effect of my amendment, I think, would only bolster that. I don't think it changes anything. It just clearly directs a judge in terms of an offence under this act, that if there is undue hardship and the person can't pay... Again, there's this anomaly, I think, of saying a person can't even serve the time if they can't pay. It at least says that an indigent person, if they satisfy the court of that, their inability to pay the fine is not a reason to have their record treated separately, which is exactly what it says now.