Cyclists fight driving demerit points

Two who went through stop signs want driver’s licences cleared, money refunded

Two Montreal-area cyclists are going to Quebec Superior Court after they were given demerit points on their driving licences for infractions committed on their bicycles.

The two cyclists – Alexis Lamy-labrecque-of Montreal and Roger Jay of Westmount – admit they failed to stop at stop signs. Both pleaded guilty and paid fines.

But they were also each given three demerit points by the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec.

Both are now being represented by human rights lawyer Julius Grey as they seek a declaratory judgment against the SAAQ to remove the demerit points, arguing there is no legal reason that an infraction committed on a bicycle should affect someone’s driving record.

“The rules about demerit points simply do not apply to cyclists or pedestrians or pilots or anybody like that; they apply to motor vehicle drivers,” Grey told The Gazette on Friday.

The SAAQ can revoke a driver’s licence if his or her demerit points reach the maximum, which varies depending on age. (For a person under 23, it’s eight points; for 23- and 24-year-olds, 12 points; and for those 25 and over, 15 points).

Jay, 61, told The Gazette on Friday he had no problem with being fined for his infraction, which occurred in mid-august 2011 in Baie d’urfé. But the demerit points were another matter.

“I felt personally afterwards that it just wasn’t fair that people with a driver’s licence were punished more for the same infraction than those who don’t have one,” said Jay, a sound-system designer.

He contacted Grey’s office and learned the firm was already working on a similar case involving student LamyLabrecque, 19.

The request, filed in Superior Court on Feb. 15, notes that the Highway Safety Act says that “to drive a road vehicle, a person must possess an appropriate licence for that vehicle” and defines a road vehicle as “a motorized vehicle that can circulate on the road; excluding vehicles that circulate only on rails, assisted bicycles and electric wheelchairs.”

The plaintiffs, who were riding regular, non-motorized bicycles, are asking for the points to be removed from their driving records and to be reimbursed for extra fees required by the SAAQ for licence renewal if demerit points have been acquired.

“It is totally unjust because that is not what the statute said and that’s not the purpose of the statute,” said Grey. “If they want to go that far they can do it to pedestrians who jaywalk.”

Audrey Chaput, a spokesperson for the SAAQ, said the demerit point dispositions of the Highway Safety Act have been in place and applied to cyclists for many years.

She noted that the SAAQ opens files on people who do not have a driver’s licence but who commit infractions with a bicycle.

If a person applying for a learner’s permit has more than four demerit points – even if he or she was a minor when the bicycle infractions were committed – he or she will face a three-month suspension before the licensing process proceeds.

The demerit points stay on file for two years, she said.