“Disobey Sign Hta Section 182(2) - Court July 22!!”

Hello all,

Unfortunate I received a ticket for turning right during the time posted on no right turn sign prohibiting right turns. The sign prohibited turns until 9:30, I turned at 9:13. This sign was located at the southern most point Victoria Park Ave in Toronto. There were several other signs including a stop sign, and various no parking signs, as well as a flashing light all on the same post. I am hoping someone will have some idea of how to fight this?

Thank you,

RightTurnGoneWrong

Probably the only real defence strategy is to hope something is wrong with the sign from a legal perspective. Regulation 615 of the Highway Traffic Act lays out the requirements for signs, how they need to be posted, how far away they need to be visible from, etc.

If the sign doesn't comply or is genuinely blocked from view, you have a possible defence. The fact that it was surrounded by other signs however probably won't help.

Edit: There was also some talk a while back of signs needing to be bilingual in designated areas such as Toronto but I don't think it ever got made into case law. Maybe someone else can advise if this is actually still a viable defence.

Bilingual defence was (more or less) quashed on appeal.

IIRC, the argument the city made is that while Toronto is a designated area, that applied only to provincial government services and the city never committed to providing fully bilingual service. Therefore, all MTO signs had to be bilingual (which they are) but city signs did not...