The answers given by the B.C. Government to questions about senior driver testing are like something out of Alice in Wonderland.

It’s interesting that the B.C. Government and the Transportation Minister, Sam McLeod, accept the Simard MD cognitive test.  Bonnie Dobbs, the author of this faulty test, admits it is at best 50% accurate.  She also admits that her test has never been peer-reviewed, except by her husband Allen Dobbs, who may be just a little biased.

So it doesn’t matter to our elected officials how many seniors (up to 50%) could unfairly lose their mobility and be placed in exile from society, as long as the B.C. Government keeps DriveABLE happy and prosperous.

To see just how much it doesn’t matter how unjust the senior driver testing scheme is and how many people it affects severely, you only have to read this short transcript of a recent question period in the BC legislature here.

By comparison, the Lie Detector Test is probably closer to 90% accurate, yet the Courts are hesitant to accept it, and the Police have to use it as an investigative tool instead.

The B.C. Government makes reference to other cognitive tests the Doctors can use, like the Montreal Cognitive Assessment.  It’s equally inaccurate and the truth is, according to researchers ‘There is no cognitive test in existence  accurate enough to be accepted and used   to  measure mental impairment’.

But the main issue in all of this is that the Provincial Government has no justification for discriminating against senior drivers, because all major statistics in Canada, USA, Europe and Australia, including the Provincial Government’s own statistics, show that senior drivers are the safest drivers on the road.

The Province appears to have  violated at least four Federal Acts in discriminating against senior drivers: the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Criminal Code on Elder Abuse, the Criminal Code on Breach of Trust and the Criminal Code on Conflict of Interest.

From what I’m hearing, the government being in bed with DriveABLE and the Dobbs family in this senior driver testing scheme based on age, seems to most observers, to be a gross violation of the Criminal Code on Breach of Trust and a major conflict of interest situation.

The cornerstone of the Canadian Judicial System is that a person or persons charged with an offence are considered innocent until proven guilty.

However, with this age-based testing with a faulty memory test and a further questionable driving test,  the senior driver is treated as guilty before having done anything wrong and the monetary penalty is applied immediately upon turning of age by the levy of ‘testing fees’.

Ed. Rockburne, RCMP, Sgt. Retired

Please be certain to assist us in building a strong legal fund to push this injustice back in the Court of competent jurisdiction by contributing at Stop Elder Driver Abuse

Consider signing Ontario MPP Randy Hillier’s Petition.