The fully tinted-out vehicle is one of the great villains of Canadian traffic.
asserted
vehicle → tint → traffic
It’s more likely to drive aggressively, ripping through residential zones and weaving through high-density freeway traffic far above the speed limit.
asserted
It → ’ → limit
Even worse than its road etiquette is what’s inside: people, possibly wanted on warrants, along with their drugs and guns.
uncertain
people → ’ → drugs
That’s why the opaque-windowed car is the perfect target for any province that wants to make substantive change in the fight against organized crime — without depending on the feds.
asserted
that → ’ → feds
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Window tint is a simple matter of traffic regulation, placing it squarely within provincial jurisdiction.
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tint → place → jurisdiction
And it’s regulated for good reason: completely darkened windows on the entire car reduce driver visibility and the tint can complicate extraction in an emergency.
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tint → regulate → emergency
They also make the job of traffic enforcement much more dangerous for the officers on the front line.
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job → make → line
It’s a lot easier for the occupants of that tinted-out hellcat to ambush the sheriff who pulled them over if he can’t see inside on the approach.
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he → ’ → approach
Generally, the present rules on window tint across the provinces allow for some degree of tint in the back of a vehicle, and no tint at all in the front.
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rules → allow → front
But, generally, the consequences across Canada for violating these very straightforward rules are astoundingly low.
asserted
consequences → violate → rules
In B.C., for example, the illegal tint fine is usually $109, according to the RCMP.
uncertain
fine → accord → RCMP
If the officer also makes an inspection order to ensure the tint is removed, and said order is not followed, there can be another fine of $598.
asserted
order → make → 598
Alberta is much the same: earlier this week a tinted-out Ford Mustang whose driver had been speeding on a learner’s licence — go figure — was hit with a $105 fine for the state of the car’s windows.
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driver → tint → windows
The minimum is $81, and failure to remove the tint after being ordered to do so comes with a $243 fine.
asserted
failure → remove → fine
Ontario’s rates are similar: the fine is $85, which comes to $110 after tacking on the victim surcharge.
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which → come → surcharge
It’s pretty clear why cars with all-black windows remain a common enough sight in city traffic.
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cars → ’ → traffic
The fines amount to a low cost-of-doing-business charge.
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fines → amount → charge
The benefits of heavy tint, concealing seedy business and protecting against targeted attacks from rivals, are easily worth that price.
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benefits → conceal → rivals
Enforcement, meanwhile, is not happening to the degree it should be.
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it → happen → degree
The visible violation of a traffic rule in the form of tint does provide officers an easy justification for pulling over a probable criminal and potentially taking an illegal gun or two off the street — but at great risk.
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violation → provide → risk
A proper, safety-conscious traffic stop of a fully tinted car is a bigger production than normal because of all the precautions that must be taken, which takes more effort and time.
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which → tint → effort
Judging by how frequently front window tint can be observed on the road, the juice doesn’t appear to be worth the squeeze for a lot of officers.
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juice → judge → officers
That calculation is easy to change.
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calculation → change → ?
Traffic fines can be cranked up with the stroke of a pen at a moment’s notice — to $3,000, $5,000 or even, for subsequent violations, $10,000 and beyond.
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fines → crank → violations
Seize the vehicles of those who insist on eating the massive fines.
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who → seize → fines
Admittedly, this would be a pain to those who simply tint their front windows for the love of the game, but it’s not like they should have been doing that in the first place.
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they → tint → place
Whatever protest they make in response to such a rule change would be worth the wrench it would throw into the criminal underworld.
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it → make → underworld
Four- and five-figure fines would actually serve as a painful punishment to the people who make thousands off of moving cocaine.
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who → serve → cocaine
And with more traffic stops of a city’s sketchiest vehicles will come more criminal charges.
asserted
charges → come → vehicles
It’s common enough that the driver is caught intoxicated or with open alcohol; or that some vehicle occupant is in the midst of violating bail conditions, wanted on a warrant, or that the car contains illegal firearms, cash, substances or stolen goods.
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car → ’ → firearms
One traffic stop in Ottawa in 2024 actually yielded a whopping 21 charges after an officer stopped a car for tinted front windows.
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officer → yield → windows
He noticed an improperly stored vape pen in the front and judged this to be a Cannabis Control Act contravention; the ensuing search yielded pills, cash, white powder, a scale, a handgun, 9-millimetre ammunition.
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search → notice → pills
The driver, it turned out, had a history of violently robbing banks and had been previously caught robbing a Rideau Centre jewelry store.
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it → turn → store
Alas, a judge ended up throwing the charges out in 2025 by declaring the search illegal, but one wonders how an appeal would have gone.
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appeal → end → 2025
In any event, the search got a handgun off the street and added to the paper trail of a notorious Ottawa criminal.
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search → get → criminal
Provinces can’t amend the Criminal Code — that’s entirely up to the feds — but they can create the conditions for better enforcement by tackling what’s well within their jurisdiction instead of wasting time lobbying Ottawa for changes to criminal laws.
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what → amend → laws
Audit the suspicious restaurants that are obviously buying stolen meat and cheese from thieves; name and shame the trucking companies whose fleets are found to be moving drugs; come down hard on problem properties that sow the surrounding blocks with disorder.
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that → audit → disorder
The people will love you for it.
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people → love → it
It’s clear from their decade in office that the Liberals prefer writing ineffective reverse-onus bail provisions that don’t make a practical difference in court and engineering new ways for judges to ignore “mandatory” minimum sentences.
asserted
judges → ’ → sentences
There’s more pride in being the premier who roots out organized crime than being one who helplessly points to Ottawa with each brazen robbery or extortion.
asserted
who → ’ → robbery
