OPP Harassment

tdoug · **Posted:** Mon May 23, 2005 7:01 am

When ice fishing this year,in one day me and my buddy were checked 4 times. Each time for our license and fish size In the afternoon bite it was only one hour between checks, when I spoke to the CO and said that you were here an hour ago, he said you're getting your monies worth, WHAT'S WITH THAT?? Obviously they don't know who they have checked and who they haven't. But yesterday they were very curtious and let us keep trolling and checked our license on the go, and asked if we had caught any fish.I find that some of these guys aren't to bad to talk to,but that one CO this winter must have thought he was GOD.Every time he checked us,we were treated like criminals,breaking the law.It upsets me knowing my taxes and license fees support guys like that.I guess it's true one bad apple can spoil the basket.As for the OPP,in 20 years of fishing,I have not had one problem.I check and make sure I have what the boat needs.

Bassn51 · **Posted:** Mon May 23, 2005 8:14 am

Enforcement on the Bay of Quinte, espesially on opening weekend is a fact of life. With all the government cutbacks the CO's and police have to get the most bang for their buck. As far as OPP go if your giving up on BOQ because of this you might as well forget any major waterway in southern Ontario because their presence is very consistant over the summer. I fish mostly back lakes, but almost everytime I venture on the bay or larger lakes and rivers in this area I'm checked. In fact two years ago when I realized that my wife had thrown out my stand up port-a-pot because she thought it smelled I was without a bailing pail the OPP who was checking us pointed out that the small cooler I had with me was sufficent as a bailing bucket. The checks and the fines are frustrating, but as someone who as lost a loved one to Lake Ontario, there is no excuse for ever being on the water without the proper safety gear.

take the grandkids fishin

Don Stokes · **Posted:** Mon May 23, 2005 2:06 pm

I have had no real bad experiences when dealing with any on the water enforcement. I find most staff to be generally decent people but do think that some of the best enforcement can come through solid on the water PR actions, be it a CO or OPP.
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My most outrageous incident happened a great number of years ago while fishing in a very cold rain, having consumed too many "pops", with a friend from Calgary, at upper Kananaskis Lk. The fellow had an over zealous student and although he did not want to pursue anything too aggresively .....his young co-worker did. I was able to handle every single question and supply every single device, however creative I had to be in order to effectively answer. The trick question came with having to open a non descript container that happened to have....empty beer cans. Yikes.....but being polite and respectful I think saved the day. Thankfully, the senior CO in command just told us to take it easy and go home....we did. Just doing their job, with a level headed officer making a decent judgement call to curtail his young "hungry" colleague. To this day, I do not abuse beer, etc. on the water......thanks to a senior CO that understood good PR.
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I look forward to being home for a few days soon, and wish everyone well.

Regards
Don Stokes

craylo · **Posted:** Mon May 23, 2005 6:42 pm

Well i guess next time you venture out for a boat trip you won't forget to bring anything.

The law is made to keep people alive, not to make a buck. What will cost you more? The fine or losing your life or someone else's on the boat?

Homer · **Joined:** Thu Dec 02, 2004 2:40 pm **Posts:** 21

craylo wrote:

Well i guess next time you venture out for a boat trip you won't forget to bring anything.

The law is made to keep people alive, not to make a buck. What will cost you more? The fine or losing your life or someone else's on the boat?

But to acheive that goal, you don't need to fine people $130. $20 will serve the same purpose.

Anyway you cut it, a $130 fine for missing a whistle or flashlight is a bit ridiculous.

iceman · **Posted:** Tue May 24, 2005 8:01 am

Roughrider,

You'r right !! I have never seen them ont at night. The opener would do.

We were stopped on Monday by C.O.'s for license check. Everything OK.

Talked to an OPP officer. Thought the whistle thing was a bit overzealous.

He said a few young guys get heady. There are some variables to every

situation, such as attitude and manor towardes the officers.

On a lighter note : has anyone been catching Fish ?????

JimBob · **Joined:** Sun May 18, 2003 9:24 pm **Posts:** 8

This will be my final statement on the subject. I have lived all my life (55yrs+) on the shores of Lake Erie. I have fished the north side of Lake Erie from Port Glasgow to Port Colborne. I have fished the southern side of Lake Ontario from Port Dalhousie to Hamilton and in all that time I have never been checked by the OPP. I have taken, completed and passed the Canadian Power Squadron course at a cost of $150.00, and for that I was grandfathered for the Pleasure Craft Cert., but still had to pay $25.00, saved $10.00. Wow. CPS course was 10 weeks with a series of exams and a final exam. PCC now thats a joke my son got his by using my CPS books and doing the exam over the internet. I can box (read) a magnetic compass and know the Mafor code. My 17ft boat is equipped with GPS, sonar, VHF (had a station and operator's license when it was law) and I carry a cell phone. I just couldn't find the damn whistle and a $130.00 fine for that to me is like being fined the same amount for having a tail light out on your vehicle. You know you're not to drive without lights, but you just were not aware it was burned out.

polliwogg · **Posted:** Wed May 25, 2005 12:05 pm

Jimbob, did you happen to mention that you had done the cps coarse? Some of the cops on BOQ have been active in cps and might have let you off with a warning as you have done your part to be part of the solution. If you were still a member and flying the cps flag they might have breezed right by you in search of more obvious prey.

Oh Yeah ...Did you ever find the damn whistle?

Superdad · **Posted:** Wed May 25, 2005 6:24 pm

You said:

"The Sunday May 15th started with the MNR checking us before we had even put a lines in the water, then less then one hour later the OPP harassed and fined us."

Did you have the whistle when they checked you? Did they mention that you should have a sounding device?

And then you went out on the water after being checked and didn't have a whistle/sounding device.

Is that what happened?? Trying to figure the events as they played out.

Ripplin · **Posted:** Wed May 25, 2005 9:28 pm

I'm also getting tired of the many stops by the opp and ministry. There has to be rules....but everytime I go to quinte I get stopped by both the opp and the ministry. I drive 2.5 hours from toronto to get away from all the city crap, and I get stopped and have to sit there, pull in the lines, stop the engine, pull out the wallet show id's.
This happens also down the road in the summer not only in May.
One afternoon I got stopped 3 times. I find the opp had a little more attitude then the ministry.
In all these years I never got stopped nowhere else, except once during the salmon derby in front of the credit in lake ontario. Even then we didn't have to pull the downriggers up.
I will move on if they keep it up. Sorry as I met lots of nice folks that live in the area.
Liam

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OPP Harassment

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