If you've ever gotten a fine in the metro for not holding on to your ticket, I'm sure you were pretty pissed off about it.
After all, you paid to ride the metro.
It's not like you jumped a turnstile or sneaked in illegally. You just forgot to keep your ticket or perhaps it simply fell out of your pocket.
It happens.
Well it doesn't matter if you paid or not, because getting caught without a ticket by an inspector in the metro will get you a $214 fine.
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And you have every right to be pissed off, because the STM seriously fucked up and it turns out that this practice is totally illegal.
A court judge ruled this week that handing out this kind of fine is actually a violation of your rights.
Essentially you aren't being accused of not paying, you're just being accused of throwing out a piece of paper.
Normally you're supposed to be innocent until proven guilty, but this kind of fine throws that notion right out the window.
One plaintiff even said he was illegally detained by STM inspectors, which is also deemed to be unconstitutional.
The STM says they want to appeal the decision. If they do, then this judgement will be suspended and the inspectors will continue to hand out fines to anyone who doesn't hold on to their tickets.
