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Abstract: Transcript of the Decision on a Summary Conviction Appeal
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Del Valle v. Yellowknife 2008 NWTSC 42 S-1-CR2008000004 S-1-CR2008000005 IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORIES IN THE MATTER OF: VAUGHN DEL VALLE Appellant - vs. - THE CITY OF YELLOWKNIFE Respondent ______________________________________________________ Transcript of the Decision by The Honourable Justice J.E. Richard, on a Summary Conviction Appeal heard at Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories, on June 3rd A.D., 2008. _________________________________________________________ APPEARANCES: Mr. V. Del Valle: Appeared on his own behalf Ms. K. Penny: Counsel for the Respondent Official Court Reporters 1 THE COURT: The appellant has brought two 2 summary conviction appeals before this Court. 3 Each appeal arises from his conviction in Justice 4 of the Peace Court of an offence under the city's 5 traffic bylaw, in particular, subsection 99(2) of 6 the bylaw which requires that a driver of a motor 7 vehicle wear a seatbelt while operating a motor 8 vehicle in the city. 9 I will deal firstly with the appeal on court 10 file number CR 2008-004. In that appeal, the 11 appellant attacks the decision of the Justice of 12 the Peace in convicting him in two ways. 13 Firstly, he asserts that the Justice of the 14 Peace was wrong in law in upholding the validity 15 of the seatbelt bylaw and in its application in 16 any event to taxicab operators. Secondly, he 17 asserts that the Justice of the Peace erred in 18 finding that the prosecutor had established on 19 the evidence that the appellant was not wearing a 20 seatbelt on the date in question. 21 Let me deal briefly with this second avenue 22 of attack. 23 The Rules of Court with respect to summary 24 conviction appeals require the appellant to put 25 before this Court a transcript of the trial 26 evidence. This appellant has not done so. When 27 an Appeal Court is asked to review a finding of Official Court Reporters 1 1 fact made by a trial Judge on the evidence heard 2 by him, it is impossible for the Appeal Court to 3 do so in the absence of a record of what that 4 trial evidence was. For this reason, the 5 appellant cannot succeed on the ground of appeal 6 in which he submits that the Justice of the Peace 7 made an error in finding that the appellant was 8 not wearing a seatbelt or that the Justice of the 9 Peace erred in not providing sufficient reasons 10 for that finding on the trial evidence. 11 I return then to those grounds of appeal in 12 which the appellant argues that the city's 13 seatbelt bylaw is invalid and also that the 14 seatbelt bylaw does not apply to him as a taxicab 15 operator. 16 The appellant has filed an extensive written 17 brief in which he sets out his arguments that the 18 Justice of the Peace was wrong in his 19 interpretation of the bylaw and of the statutes 20 pursuant to which the bylaw was enacted by the 21 city. I would summarize the appellant's legal 22 arguments as follows: 23 (a) Neither of the parent statutes, that is 24 the Cities, Towns and Villages Act or the Motor 25 Vehicles Act, authorizes city council to make 26 bylaws on the subject matter of seatbelts; and, 27 (b) Subsection 99(2) of Bylaw No. 4063 is Official Court Reporters 2 1 inconsistent with either or both of the parent 2 statutes and is therefore of no effect. 3 In advancing argument (a), the appellant 4 references the bylaw making power granted to city 5 council by the Legislative Assembly in each of 6 the two parent statutes. The Cities, Towns and 7 Villages Act provides that city council has 8 general legislative powers as follows: 9 Section 70(1), 10 In addition to any power to make 11 bylaws in any other enactment, 12 council may make bylaws for 13 municipal purposes respecting 14 (a) the safety, health and welfare 15 of people, and the protection of 16 people and property. 17 ... 18 (d) transport, motor vehicles, 19 pedestrians, and local 20 transportation systems. 21 ... 22 Subsection (2), 23 The power of a municipal corporation 24 to make bylaws is subject to all 25 enactments of the Northwest 26 Territories and Canada. 27 Subsection (3), Official Court Reporters 3 1 The general powers to make a bylaw 2 under this section are subject to 3 any conditions on a power to make a 4 specific bylaw set out elsewhere in 5 this Act or in any other enactment. 6 Subsection (4), 7 A bylaw that is inconsistent with an 8 enactment of the Northwest 9 Territories or Canada is of no 10 effect to the extent of the 11 inconsistency. 12 It is the appellant's submission that 13 requiring people to wear seatbelts is not a 14 subject matter within the meaning of the words 15 "transport, motor vehicles, pedestrians, and 16 local transportation systems". With respect, I 17 disagree. 18 The subject matter of Section 99 of the 19 bylaw, that is the mandatory wearing of seatbelts 20 by drivers and passengers, clearly comes within 21 both paragraphs (a) "the safety, health and 22 welfare of people, and the protection of people 23 and property"; and paragraph (d) "transport, 24 motor vehicles, pedestrians, and local 25 transportation systems". 26 The seatbelt provisions of traffic Bylaw 27 No. 4063 are a legitimate exercise of the Official Court Reporters 4 1 lawmaking power granted to city council in 2 Section 70 of the Cities, Towns and Villages Act. 3 While it is not necessary to also find the 4 lawmaking power in the Motor Vehicles Act, I wish 5 to refer briefly to an erroneous argument that is 6 contained in the appellant's brief with respect 7 to city council's jurisdiction to enact bylaws 8 under that statute. 9 The appellant noted that Section 347 of the 10 Motor Vehicles Act sets out a long list of what 11 he terms "express areas" in which city council is 12 authorized to enact bylaws and asserted that this 13 meant that city council could enact bylaws only 14 in those "express areas". This is an erroneous 15 and disingenuous statement, for the appellant 16 would have read the introductory words of 17 subsection 347(1) where the legislature said 18 "without restricting the generality of the power 19 to make bylaws" regarding, for example, vehicles, 20 the city council can make bylaws on the long list 21 of topics that followed. 22 I turn now to legal argument (b) in which 23 the appellant asserts that Section 99 of Bylaw 24 4063 is inconsistent with the parent legislation 25 and is therefore of no effect. The alleged 26 inconsistency, which is the foundation of this 27 argument, is that the parent legislation exempts Official Court Reporters 5 1 taxicab operators from mandatory seatbelt use 2 whereas the city's bylaw does not. The short 3 answer to this argument is that the parent 4 legislation does not provide any such blanket 5 exemption to taxicab operators. 6 Subsection 99(2) of the city's bylaw makes 7 it an offence for a driver, including taxi 8 drivers, to operate a motor vehicle in the city 9 without wearing a seatbelt. That is the 10 subsection under which this appellant was 11 charged. 12 Subsections 99(4) and 99(5) make it an 13 offence for a driver to operate a motor vehicle 14 in the city when there is a passenger in the 15 motor vehicle who is not wearing a seatbelt. 16 Subsection 99(6), and this is the subsection 17 on which the appellant places a great deal of 18 reliance, exempts a taxicab operator from 19 liability under subsections (4) and (5) which 20 deal with passengers who are not wearing 21 seatbelts. 22 The parent legislation, to which the 23 appellant refers, is the Motor Vehicles Act which 24 of course has general application throughout the 25 Northwest Territories. Far from being 26 inconsistent, its provisions with respect to 27 seatbelts are identical. These provisions are Official Court Reporters 6 1 contained in Section 146 of the Motor Vehicles 2 Act and in the regulations under that Act 3 entitled "seatbelt assembly and child restraint 4 system regulations". Like the city's bylaw, 5 under the territorial legislation, 6 (a) It is an offence for a driver, 7 including taxi drivers, to operate a 8 motor vehicle in the Northwest 9 Territories without wearing a 10 seatbelt. 11 (b) It is a separate offence for a 12 driver to operate a motor vehicle in 13 the Northwest Territories when there 14 is a passenger in the motor vehicle 15 who is not wearing a seatbelt. 16 (c) There is an exemption provided 17 for taxi drivers from this second 18 type of offence, i.e., driving his 19 cab, wearing his seatbelt, but who 20 has a paying customer who is not 21 wearing his seatbelt. 22 It is thus incorrect to state that there is 23 any inconsistency between Section 99 of the 24 city's bylaw and the parent motor vehicle 25 legislation. 26 In fairness to this appellant, who is 27 self-represented and is not a trained lawyer, Official Court Reporters 7 1 part of the confusion stems from the fact that 2 some of these legislative enactments that have 3 been referred to were enacted some time ago and 4 contain cross-referencing to sections and 5 subsections of other enactments which have since 6 been renumbered by later amendments. One example 7 is the reference in Section 8 of the territorial 8 seatbelt regulations to subsections 146(5) and 9 146(6) of the Motor Vehicles Act. Another 10 example is the references in the preamble of 11 Bylaw No. 4063 passed in 1999 to the bylaw making 12 power in the Cities, Towns and Villages Act and 13 the Motor Vehicles Act. By reviewing the 14 contents of the appeal's written brief, one can 15 see that the appellant was not alive to the 16 problem of cross-references to renumbered or 17 amended enactments. 18 Be that as it may, the appeal brief contains 19 certain submissions or assertions that simply are 20 without merit. For example, at page 5 of his 21 written brief the appellant asserts that if in a 22 legislative enactment or in a bylaw taxicab 23 operators are exempt from some subsections, then 24 they are exempt from all subsections. Such an 25 argument has no foundation in law or in logic and 26 is erroneous. 27 At page 7 of his brief, the appellant Official Court Reporters 8 1 suggests that a taxicab operator may choose not 2 to wear a seatbelt or may remove an installed 3 seatbelt assembly and then is immune from 4 prosecution for not wearing a seatbelt. There is 5 no basis in law for such a proposition. 6 In Justice of the Peace Court on December 7 4th, 2007, the Justice of the Peace had, in 8 convicting the appellant, dismissed the 9 appellant's arguments on the invalidity of the 10 bylaw and on its inapplicability to taxi drivers 11 for reasons stated by the Justice of the Peace in 12 his decision. I find no error in the decision of 13 the Justice of the Peace. 14 So on appeal file number CR 2008-004, I 15 grant the appellant's request for an extension of 16 time to file his appeal however the appeal is 17 dismissed for the reasons that I have just given. 18 On the other appeal file CR 2008-005, the 19 appeal is brought by this appellant on identical 20 grounds and accordingly that appeal is dismissed 21 as well. 22 That disposes of the two appeals then, and 23 we will close court. 24 THE CLERK: Thank you, sir. 25 ------------------------------------- 26 27 Official Court Reporters 9 1 Certified to be a true and accurate transcript pursuant 2 to Rules 723 and 724 of the Supreme Court Rules, 3 4 5 6 ____________________________ 7 Lois Hewitt, CSR(A), RPR, CRR Court Reporter 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 Official Court Reporters 10 Del Valle v. Yellowknife 2008 NWTSC 42 S-1-CR2008000004 S-1-CR2008000005 IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORIES IN THE MATTER OF: VAUGHN DEL VALLE Appellant - vs. - THE CITY OF YELLOWKNIFE Respondent ______________________________________________________ Transcript of the Decision by The Honourable Justice J.E. Richard, on a Summary Conviction Appeal heard at Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories, on June 3rd A.D., 2008. _________________________________________________________ APPEARANCES: Mr. V. Del Valle: Appeared on his own behalf Ms. K. Penny: Counsel for the Respondent Official Court Reporters 1 THE COURT: The appellant has brought two 2 summary conviction appeals before this Court. 3 Each appeal arises from his conviction in Justice 4 of the Peace Court of an offence under the city's 5 traffic bylaw, in particular, subsection 99(2) of 6 the bylaw which requires that a driver of a motor 7 vehicle wear a seatbelt while operating a motor 8 vehicle in the city. 9 I will deal firstly with the appeal on court 10 file number CR 2008-004. In that appeal, the 11 appellant attacks the decision of the Justice of 12 the Peace in convicting him in two ways. 13 Firstly, he asserts that the Justice of the 14 Peace was wrong in law in upholding the validity 15 of the seatbelt bylaw and in its application in 16 any event to taxicab operators. Secondly, he 17 asserts that the Justice of the Peace erred in 18 finding that the prosecutor had established on 19 the evidence that the appellant was not wearing a 20 seatbelt on the date in question. 21 Let me deal briefly with this second avenue 22 of attack. 23 The Rules of Court with respect to summary 24 conviction appeals require the appellant to put 25 before this Court a transcript of the trial 26 evidence. This appellant has not done so. When 27 an Appeal Court is asked to review a finding of Official Court Reporters 1 1 fact made by a trial Judge on the evidence heard 2 by him, it is impossible for the Appeal Court to 3 do so in the absence of a record of what that 4 trial evidence was. For this reason, the 5 appellant cannot succeed on the ground of appeal 6 in which he submits that the Justice of the Peace 7 made an error in finding that the appellant was 8 not wearing a seatbelt or that the Justice of the 9 Peace erred in not providing sufficient reasons 10 for that finding on the trial evidence. 11 I return then to those grounds of appeal in 12 which the appellant argues that the city's 13 seatbelt bylaw is invalid and also that the 14 seatbelt bylaw does not apply to him as a taxicab 15 operator. 16 The appellant has filed an extensive written 17 brief in which he sets out his arguments that the 18 Justice of the Peace was wrong in his 19 interpretation of the bylaw and of the statutes 20 pursuant to which the bylaw was enacted by the 21 city. I would summarize the appellant's legal 22 arguments as follows: 23 (a) Neither of the parent statutes, that is 24 the Cities, Towns and Villages Act or the Motor 25 Vehicles Act, authorizes city council to make 26 bylaws on the subject matter of seatbelts; and, 27 (b) Subsection 99(2) of Bylaw No. 4063 is Official Court Reporters 2 1 inconsistent with either or both of the parent 2 statutes and is therefore of no effect. 3 In advancing argument (a), the appellant 4 references the bylaw making power granted to city 5 council by the Legislative Assembly in each of 6 the two parent statutes. The Cities, Towns and 7 Villages Act provides that city council has 8 general legislative powers as follows: 9 Section 70(1), 10 In addition to any power to make 11 bylaws in any other enactment, 12 council may make bylaws for 13 municipal purposes respecting 14 (a) the safety, health and welfare 15 of people, and the protection of 16 people and property. 17 ... 18 (d) transport, motor vehicles, 19 pedestrians, and local 20 transportation systems. 21 ... 22 Subsection (2), 23 The power of a municipal corporation 24 to make bylaws is subject to all 25 enactments of the Northwest 26 Territories and Canada. 27 Subsection (3), Official Court Reporters 3 1 The general powers to make a bylaw 2 under this section are subject to 3 any conditions on a power to make a 4 specific bylaw set out elsewhere in 5 this Act or in any other enactment. 6 Subsection (4), 7 A bylaw that is inconsistent with an 8 enactment of the Northwest 9 Territories or Canada is of no 10 effect to the extent of the 11 inconsistency. 12 It is the appellant's submission that 13 requiring people to wear seatbelts is not a 14 subject matter within the meaning of the words 15 "transport, motor vehicles, pedestrians, and 16 local transportation systems". With respect, I 17 disagree. 18 The subject matter of Section 99 of the 19 bylaw, that is the mandatory wearing of seatbelts 20 by drivers and passengers, clearly comes within 21 both paragraphs (a) "the safety, health and 22 welfare of people, and the protection of people 23 and property"; and paragraph (d) "transport, 24 motor vehicles, pedestrians, and local 25 transportation systems". 26 The seatbelt provisions of traffic Bylaw 27 No. 4063 are a legitimate exercise of the Official Court Reporters 4 1 lawmaking power granted to city council in 2 Section 70 of the Cities, Towns and Villages Act. 3 While it is not necessary to also find the 4 lawmaking power in the Motor Vehicles Act, I wish 5 to refer briefly to an erroneous argument that is 6 contained in the appellant's brief with respect 7 to city council's jurisdiction to enact bylaws 8 under that statute. 9 The appellant noted that Section 347 of the 10 Motor Vehicles Act sets out a long list of what 11 he terms "express areas" in which city council is 12 authorized to enact bylaws and asserted that this 13 meant that city council could enact bylaws only 14 in those "express areas". This is an erroneous 15 and disingenuous statement, for the appellant 16 would have read the introductory words of 17 subsection 347(1) where the legislature said 18 "without restricting the generality of the power 19 to make bylaws" regarding, for example, vehicles, 20 the city council can make bylaws on the long list 21 of topics that followed. 22 I turn now to legal argument (b) in which 23 the appellant asserts that Section 99 of Bylaw 24 4063 is inconsistent with the parent legislation 25 and is therefore of no effect. The alleged 26 inconsistency, which is the foundation of this 27 argument, is that the parent legislation exempts Official Court Reporters 5 1 taxicab operators from mandatory seatbelt use 2 whereas the city's bylaw does not. The short 3 answer to this argument is that the parent 4 legislation does not provide any such blanket 5 exemption to taxicab operators. 6 Subsection 99(2) of the city's bylaw makes 7 it an offence for a driver, including taxi 8 drivers, to operate a motor vehicle in the city 9 without wearing a seatbelt. That is the 10 subsection under which this appellant was 11 charged. 12 Subsections 99(4) and 99(5) make it an 13 offence for a driver to operate a motor vehicle 14 in the city when there is a passenger in the 15 motor vehicle who is not wearing a seatbelt. 16 Subsection 99(6), and this is the subsection 17 on which the appellant places a great deal of 18 reliance, exempts a taxicab operator from 19 liability under subsections (4) and (5) which 20 deal with passengers who are not wearing 21 seatbelts. 22 The parent legislation, to which the 23 appellant refers, is the Motor Vehicles Act which 24 of course has general application throughout the 25 Northwest Territories. Far from being 26 inconsistent, its provisions with respect to 27 seatbelts are identical. These provisions are Official Court Reporters 6 1 contained in Section 146 of the Motor Vehicles 2 Act and in the regulations under that Act 3 entitled "seatbelt assembly and child restraint 4 system regulations". Like the city's bylaw, 5 under the territorial legislation, 6 (a) It is an offence for a driver, 7 including taxi drivers, to operate a 8 motor vehicle in the Northwest 9 Territories without wearing a 10 seatbelt. 11 (b) It is a separate offence for a 12 driver to operate a motor vehicle in 13 the Northwest Territories when there 14 is a passenger in the motor vehicle 15 who is not wearing a seatbelt. 16 (c) There is an exemption provided 17 for taxi drivers from this second 18 type of offence, i.e., driving his 19 cab, wearing his seatbelt, but who 20 has a paying customer who is not 21 wearing his seatbelt. 22 It is thus incorrect to state that there is 23 any inconsistency between Section 99 of the 24 city's bylaw and the parent motor vehicle 25 legislation. 26 In fairness to this appellant, who is 27 self-represented and is not a trained lawyer, Official Court Reporters 7 1 part of the confusion stems from the fact that 2 some of these legislative enactments that have 3 been referred to were enacted some time ago and 4 contain cross-referencing to sections and 5 subsections of other enactments which have since 6 been renumbered by later amendments. One example 7 is the reference in Section 8 of the territorial 8 seatbelt regulations to subsections 146(5) and 9 146(6) of the Motor Vehicles Act. Another 10 example is the references in the preamble of 11 Bylaw No. 4063 passed in 1999 to the bylaw making 12 power in the Cities, Towns and Villages Act and 13 the Motor Vehicles Act. By reviewing the 14 contents of the appeal's written brief, one can 15 see that the appellant was not alive to the 16 problem of cross-references to renumbered or 17 amended enactments. 18 Be that as it may, the appeal brief contains 19 certain submissions or assertions that simply are 20 without merit. For example, at page 5 of his 21 written brief the appellant asserts that if in a 22 legislative enactment or in a bylaw taxicab 23 operators are exempt from some subsections, then 24 they are exempt from all subsections. Such an 25 argument has no foundation in law or in logic and 26 is erroneous. 27 At page 7 of his brief, the appellant Official Court Reporters 8 1 suggests that a taxicab operator may choose not 2 to wear a seatbelt or may remove an installed 3 seatbelt assembly and then is immune from 4 prosecution for not wearing a seatbelt. There is 5 no basis in law for such a proposition. 6 In Justice of the Peace Court on December 7 4th, 2007, the Justice of the Peace had, in 8 convicting the appellant, dismissed the 9 appellant's arguments on the invalidity of the 10 bylaw and on its inapplicability to taxi drivers 11 for reasons stated by the Justice of the Peace in 12 his decision. I find no error in the decision of 13 the Justice of the Peace. 14 So on appeal file number CR 2008-004, I 15 grant the appellant's request for an extension of 16 time to file his appeal however the appeal is 17 dismissed for the reasons that I have just given. 18 On the other appeal file CR 2008-005, the 19 appeal is brought by this appellant on identical 20 grounds and accordingly that appeal is dismissed 21 as well. 22 That disposes of the two appeals then, and 23 we will close court. 24 THE CLERK: Thank you, sir. 25 ------------------------------------- 26 27 Official Court Reporters 9 1 Certified to be a true and accurate transcript pursuant 2 to Rules 723 and 724 of the Supreme Court Rules, 3 4 5 6 ____________________________ 7 Lois Hewitt, CSR(A), RPR, CRR Court Reporter 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 Official Court Reporters 10
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