There's a wing in Bordeaux Prison, says a Montrealer who only wants to be known as Chief, that's crawling with men who haven't paid their fines. Chief knows this because he was one of them for a brief time over the Canada Day weekend. He was caught crossing a street at a red light by police who ran his name through their computers and found he owed roughly $1,000 in unpaid traffic tickets. Chief, however, says he had nothing to do with them--he claims his wallet had been stolen some time before by someone who ran up a number of infractions on a license obtained with his ID. Chief served five days to clear his fine. >> Among the men Chief met in the unpaid fine wing was one man who said he had an unpaid $2 parking ticket from 1962, a shaken young father of two there for a speeding ticket, and a man with a heart condition who was taken away in an ambulance. >> Was he scared? Yes, says Chief. Not only did skinheads threaten his life, but as a veteran of the Gulf War (during which he claims he was detained and tortured by the Iraqis), he began suffering nightmarish flashbacks when Bordeaux guards threatened and insulted him, and pushed him around. "I thought of killing myself just to make the flashbacks go away," Chief says. "I was afraid I might mistake a guard for an Iraqi interrogator and kill him." >> The moral of the story: pay your tickets. And if, like Chief, you didn't know about them, or if, like many others, you can't, well, that's life. >> "Something has to be done with this system in Quebec," Chief concludes. "They're treating somebody with a ticket the same as armed robbers, rapists or murderers." --Jacquie Charlton
There's a wing in Bordeaux Prison, says a Montrealer who only wants to be known as Chief, that's crawling with men who haven't paid their fines. Chief knows this because he was one of them for a brief time over the Canada Day weekend. He was caught crossing a street at a red light by police who ran his name through their computers and found he owed roughly $1,000 in unpaid traffic tickets. Chief, however, says he had nothing to do with them--he claims his wallet had been stolen some time before by someone who ran up a number of infractions on a license obtained with his ID. Chief served five days to clear his fine. >> Among the men Chief met in the unpaid fine wing was one man who said he had an unpaid $2 parking ticket from 1962, a shaken young father of two there for a speeding ticket, and a man with a heart condition who was taken away in an ambulance. >> Was he scared? Yes, says Chief. Not only did skinheads threaten his life, but as a veteran of the Gulf War (during which he claims he was detained and tortured by the Iraqis), he began suffering nightmarish flashbacks when Bordeaux guards threatened and insulted him, and pushed him around. "I thought of killing myself just to make the flashbacks go away," Chief says. "I was afraid I might mistake a guard for an Iraqi interrogator and kill him." >> The moral of the story: pay your tickets. And if, like Chief, you didn't know about them, or if, like many others, you can't, well, that's life. >> "Something has to be done with this system in Quebec," Chief concludes. "They're treating somebody with a ticket the same as armed robbers, rapists or murderers." --Jacquie Charlton