A Barrie man has been sentenced to jail time following a series of impaired driving convictions. Troy Sylvester, 56, pleaded guilty in Bracebridge to driving while prohibited.
According to a police report, on March 17, 2024, at approximately 6:20 p.m., a concerned member of the public alerted police about erratic driving behaviour on Highway 11 South in Bracebridge. Officers located the vehicle shortly after and conducted a traffic stop.
Sylvester was arrested and charged with Operation While Impaired and Over 80, despite being a prohibited driver at the time and required to have an interlock system installed in his vehicle.
In court, it was revealed that Sylvester has multiple prior convictions for impaired driving. He received a sentence of 45 days in jail, along with 12 months of probation and a three-year ban from driving. The presiding judge expressed surprise that Sylvester had not been sentenced to jail previously for his offenses.
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I have a question for my fellow readers.
How often you you read an article in Doppler that has the title ” OPP stop a local driver for impaired driving – and a repeat offender”?
Your answer I think is in almost every Doppler issue.
So, why is our justice system repeatedly allowing these impaired drivers to drive on our roads while impaired? Why is the message not getting through to impaired drivers that it is not OK to drive and endanger all of us?
The reason is simply that there seems to be no conviction punishment that these impaired drivers really take seriously. Just another slap on the wrist that is not really taken seriously.
Who is responsible for these soft sentences? That would be our Judges – right? The OPP are doing their job and taking the impaired drivers off the roads by the dozen. But our Judges are not convincing these drivers that their convictions should be taken seriously. If you are a Judge reading this, I hope you feel some sense of guilt yourself for allowing the impaired drivers to repeatedly get back on the road, get caught again and again , get a sentence and then do it all again – repeatedly.
Finally maybe the Judge involved in this particular Doppler issue, has said, on behalf I hope of all the other judges – quote -” The presiding judge expressed surprise that Sylvester had not been sentenced to jail previously for his offenses”
Please, your Honour(s), lets put more impact into your sentencing to curb this dangerous repeat offender practice.
Robert Barnes – Gravenhurst.