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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Unlicensed driver loses appeal that argued he's not legally a person
HE may score a few points for originality -- but a Winnipeg man has lost his legal fight this week to be granted an unusual exemption from prosecution.
Police pulled over Phillip Dornn last year and ticketed him for three Highway Traffic Act offences, including driving without a licence, driving without insurance and failing to stop at a stop sign.
Rather than pay the fine, Dornn opted to fight the matter on the grounds he is not a "person" as defined by the act, and the Manitoba government, through its regulations, infringed on his rights by ticketing him.
"He states that on the day in question, as a private individual engaged in private activity, that he was not subject to prosecution," reads a summary of the provincial court judge's written reasons to reject his bid.
Dornn took the case to the Manitoba Court of Appeal earlier this year, hoping it would overturn the lower-court decision.
"The Crown failed to prove that the term 'Person'... actually includes God's creation of man whose God-given rights cannot be eroded," Dornn argued in his application. "The error in law is the presumption that I am a legal person. Human persons, persons, corporate persons all have unique responsibilities and duties under the rule of law. Man has duties and responsibilities before God that are so defined by the Bible."
But Dornn was shot down this week by the appeal court.
"He has not convinced he has an arguable case of substance, which is of sufficient importance to merit the attention of this court," wrote Justice Michel Monnin.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 28, 2012 A8
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