Cell-Phone Citations

Just so that we’re clear on this, I fully support the issuance of traffic citations to drivers who use their cell phone while operating their vehicle; there’s not much in this world -- aside from nu-metal kids who preach their creed and don’t know who Slayer is or what a Spider Riff is, toy dogs and their self-centered owners, Canada’s little-brother complex, Heineken, pretentious and elitist socialites or hipsters, the "precious few," etc., -- that I despise more than cell-phone users who chat away oblivious to the road conditions that surround their boxed world. Seriously, wake up you establishment slaves. All of which to say that I’m happy Quebec now fines such cell-phone users $115 and three demerit points.

I did, however, see something when I left my office building in Montreal’s plateau area on August 7, 2008, that really confused me, which then angered me and finally left me stupefied; I saw a squad car “pull over” a bicyclist because he was talking on his cell phone. Really, does the Montreal police department have nothing better to do than bother a 19-year-old kid on his way home from spending a summer day at Parc Jeanne-Mance? Maybe little boy blue ought to worry more about the needles and syringes that litter many on Montreal’s streets than his frosted tips. Actually, I’d feel much more satisfied if I knew my municipal taxes were going towards Montreal’s “finest” stopping the abundant and obnoxiously arrogant Quebec drivers who think that they can speed around town like their on Circuit Gilles Villeneuve (that’s the F1 track in Montreal).

Anyway, after I’d stopped to watch the police take this young kid’s identification, I decided to head toward my car. Between five to ten minutes later, the time it took me to reach my car and circle the block so that I could head north on St. Laurent Blvd, the cops were still wasting this kid’s time and my tax dollar. Seriously, copper, get a job.