I may have mentioned my ongoing struggle with the court system here on my exhaust pipe ticket from my visit to the Dynes Tavern Bike night in Hamilton last June. I had my day in court in January and despite putting up my best arguments that Officer Cattle was harassing me and also that the trial date was out of statute.

Of course it is well known that traffic court is presided over by a Justice of the Peace (better known to all of us who spend some time in court as a J.P.) and that generally speaking J.P.’s are political appointees who have no legal background and generally rely on the alleged expertise of the officer and crown when rendering a decision on a traffic ticket.

Well I did commit to filing an appeal which I did and I had my appeal hearing just before deadline for this issue and I had the tremendous good fortune of getting a judge in my case who is not only capable of independent thought but also reads his law books and goes by the letter of the law.

I stated my case using Officer Cattles testimony from the transcripts of the trial in which he asserts that he is an expert in the field of motorcycle exhaust products because he rides a Hamilton Police issue Harley-Davidson, has attended the three week O.P.P. issued bad biker training course in which they taught the students that if they could insert an A.S.P. baton into the pipes that was sufficient proof that there was an absence of baffles, and further that he was the proud owner of his own personal Harley-Davidson Motorcycle.

I was able to bring photographs of my own pipes which had been removed from my bike and photographed the removal of the baffles from the pipes and also print outs from the internet website of the manufacturer of the pipes, Samson, in which it specifically states that the baffles are built into the pipes contrary to Officer Cattles testimony.

A part of his testimony that I found interesting was that he also testified that he and his brethren had previously used a tape measure as an instrument of proof to the lack of baffles although he admitted they abandoned the practice as they found that the end of the tape tended to get caught on something inside of the pipes although he failed to speculate as to what that might be. I was able to show though my photo series that the officer’s tape measure was most probably getting caught on the baffles that the officer testified were not present, interesting stuff eh?

In conversation with a licenses Harley trained mechanic whom I just happened to mention this case to he expressed severe concern about inserting an A.S.P. baton into the pipes of any Harley-Davidson motorcycle as they contain O2 sensors which are part of the pollution control systems mandated by governments to conform to emission control standards.

The crown in a valiant effort to produce a save in this appeal hearing pointed out the despite the fact that I was convicted by the J.P. on the strength of Officer Cattles testimony that I had no baffles in my pipes that the central issue was the noise level. The Judge in his infinite wisdom and clarity in interpreting the law on the books stated that if that is the issue then the government of Ontario, the authors of the Highway Traffic act should insert some standard in the form of decibels that makes the law plain and simple, a true epiphany as this is one of many arguments that we and others have been putting forward for some time now. I even asked his Honor how we might go about enacting such change to the H.T.A. and his response with a smile was "don’t ask a judge."

The bottom line is that this wise Judge granted my appeal and ordered a new trial, and in the very near future I will be attending the courthouse in Hamilton for a date to set a date for my new trial. There will be more for you to read on this subject in upcoming issues of the Mag stay tuned.