How much fine is reasonable in this case?

Refer to the below report from CBC this past Monday. The two dudes were fined $15,000 combined?

Someone suggested to me in this case the two dudes EACH should have been fined a minimum one million ($1,000,000), which I'd fully agree;-)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/...fines-1.4295529

QUOTE

Two men from Winnipeg, MB, have been fined nearly $15,000 in total for various fishing violations, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) of ONTARIO said Monday.

The two men were each fined:

$3,500 for obstructing a Fisheries Officer;
$1,500 for making false and misleading statements to a Fisheries Officer;
$1,200 for fishing for lake trout during a closed season;
$500 for unlawfully using fish as bait; and
$500 for fishing with barbed hooks in a restricted area.

One of the men was also fined $500 for fishing without a licence, and both have been prohibited from fishing in Ontario for two years. Their fishing equipment was also forfeited to the Crown.


UNQUOTE

Too much of this going on these days. I say fine them heavy and stop them from fishing period!

Mnr fined that commerical boat on erie 5k if i recall. That was for letting 8000lbs of fish spoil. Who did more damage to a resource here??? 15k is alot of coin.

I am all for stiff fish new and agree with this one whole heartedly.

Consider the average income in Canada is about $27,000/year. If your an average income earning the fine is massive. If you're a 1%er this fine would be laughable. Good new is there are very few top 1% earners and have ever met or know of fishing unless you're talking about some elite club.

Yeah I don't get that either. You'd think the commercial fines would be a lot heftier than personal ones.

OK they got FINED a significant amount.

How do we know or ensure it gets PAID????

Maybe I'm just a cynic!!!

SDC

15K in fines.

Fishing ban.

Gear confiscated.

The world is a better place now.

Did they confiscate their vehicles??

If they didn't , should have in my opinion!

This would help put a stop to this type of crap.

Even if they don't pay the fine, the loss of their vehicles will have a significant impact.

SDC

If I was a judge, I'd be known as the "hanging judge"!

one million is a little steep, in the case of the couple one wonders if they were not well of and that was a food source.

In any case poaching is bad, but 1,000,000 is crazy, and its crazy to me that a commercial boat can do that, and any dink that wants to move his boat and possibly invasive species can do so freely. But if I want to catch my own bait, I identify and return illegal/sensitive species I am an enemy of the environment and should be further regulated.

And the stupid OFAH, the organisation that should be supporting us as anglers sits back, because speaking out against the MNR would make it harder to go get a government pension later.

- Confiscate gear
- Confiscate car
- Fine them an amount equal with the yearly income declared during previous taxation year, or 10k (if the income is lower)
- ban them forever

As much as you would like to see heavier fines.... our country court system works on set precedence. If John Doe 1 committed the same offense and was fine x amount. John Doe 2 would argue to have the same or less. Only way to have these fines increases is to pass a bill or have them posted.

Well this is a good example that the system works.
If you notice the biggest part of the fine is related to basically not owning up to your misdeeds.
All to often you'll hear a hearsay story of how so and so got fine for no good reason and the MNR is out to get you for no good reason. Often what's left out of the story is the person failed to fully cooperate with the MNR which lead to being made an example of rather than given a warning .
Know the rules follow them to the letter and if questioned fully cooperate with them.

further it is not the size of the fine that is the problem its the enforcement.
Fishing and hunting rules are being disregarded because lets face it the general public will not be caught and punished.
Until the perception is changed it will continue to be the wild west out there.
For me would love to see the MNR run solely on the fines they collect. Sure you'll rapidly see a change in attitude out there.

Yes... in this case I picture it was a small fishing offense that turn out to become bigger as they did not cooperate with the officer and got the book thrown on them for every possible offense the officer could find.

Obstructing an officer would fire up the book real quick. These guys probably could of got off with a slap on the hands and not even make it on the news.

You can't fix stupid but you can make it hurt!!