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Some people insist on gumming up the system by saying they didn’t do whatever they’re charged with, or they did it but there’s an important explanation: “Like the criminal court process, the process for dealing with these matters requires significant court and law enforcement resources, which are paid for by Ontario and municipal taxpayers — resources that could be redirected to other needs,” the ministry says.

Having to go to court can also be intimidating and can discourage people from fighting charges even when they feel they’re right.

So the government’s idea is to simplify things. It would start with parking tickets. Then it could move on to traffic violations and then any number of other charges. Offences would be dealt with by non-judges in non-courts (possibly entirely in online exchanges of documents), and punished with monetary non-fines.

The only sure exceptions are “very serious offences raising significant concerns about public safety and welfare,” such as violating the law requiring sex offenders to register their whereabouts.

Here’s the problem. Practically, it would turn all the offences involved into civil matters rather than the quasi-criminal ones they are now, a technical legal distinction with gigantic implications.

Civil cases have a lower standard of proof than criminal cases: a “balance of probabilities,” not “beyond a reasonable doubt.” If you’re the Crown, you’d much rather deal with civil standards than criminal ones. They make your job a lot easier.