On December 4th, I was in attendance at the
2nd reading of Bill 117 and was disappointed,
although not surprised to see Bill 117 pass
it's 2nd reading and get referred to the Justice
Policy Committee for review and consideration.
Although MPP Dr. Jaczek's Bill is well intentioned,
it is certainly flawed with regards to the
statistics she uses to support her position.
Yes, children have been medical attention
from motorcycle related injuries but not once
in 15 years has a child been killed as a result
of riding as a passenger on a motorcycle.
In fact, Dr. Jaczek is not unable to clarify
how many of those injuries were as a result
of road vs. offroad motorcycle activities,
nor is she able to confirm or deny that some
of those injuries may have been as a result
of simply leaning against a hot exhaust in
the driveway.
The Canada Safety Council concluded that
from 1999 to 2005 there were no fatalities
for motorcycle passengers less than fourteen
years of age. They also revealed that Ontario
children were four times more likely to have
been injured as passengers on bicycles and
262 times more likely to have been injured
as passengers in vehicles than to have been
injured as passengers on motorcycles. They
state that this Bill is trying to address
an issue that simply does not exist.
The motorcycle industry body (MMIC) will
be distributing petitions around all the member
manufacturer booths at the upcoming Toronto
Motorcycle Show for the public to sign. The
completed petitions will be supplied to the
MPPs that can use it most effectively (likely
opposition), and so we thoroughly recommend
that if you're going to the show, that you
take time to add your signature.
Bill 117 assumes a couple things; firstly,
that motorcycles are so dangerous that children
must be protected from them and secondly that
because of this, parents should not be able
to make the choice to ride with their children.
Of course any child that is hurt or killed
is a tragedy and it is very easy to say, "If
they had not been on the motorcycle, they
would have been fine." However, the same
can be said about any child killed in a car
accident or killed in a skiing accident. They
would have been fine had they not been in
that situation to begin with.
Life is not without risk and nearly every
recreational or sporting activity comes with
some. It is a parent's responsibility to calculate
those risks. Even our day-to-day routines
can be dangerous; including taking our children
to school could result in them being killed
along the way. Children are injured at a rate
of one every three minutes from Hockey related
injuries but nobody bats an eye at that despite
such a shockingly high number of injuries
per year.
Bill 117 takes away our rights as parents
to make decisions about exposing our children
to the world we want them to experience. It
assumes that parents are not capable to make
decisions about the risks of any given activity
and the rewards associated with them.
Once again this Bill is for a problem that
simply doesn't exist. To quote a colleague
and fellow rider who said: Let those
who ride decide.
http://www.ontla.on.ca/web/bills/bills_detail.do?locale=en&BillID=2098
