NDP Transportation Critic Gilles Bisson today questioned the effectiveness of the Ministry of Transportation’s driver licensing practices in the wake of several troubling incidents.

The latest cause for concern: the case of a Kingston-area man who managed to obtain a driver’s licence even after he received a lifetime driving ban for killing four people while driving drunk.

“How can Ontarians have any confidence in the Ministry of
Transportation if it can't enforce a simple driver's licence ban,” asked Bisson.

Transportation Minister Jim Bradley had little in the way of an answer.

“Unfortunately, this debacle is another twist in a bad movie that just won’t end,” added Bisson.

In April, Anna Medeiros, a Toronto-area mother of five, received a letter from the Ministry informing her that her driver’s licence was suspended. One minor problem – Medeiros never had a driver’s licence to begin with.

And earlier this month, an employee at a Peel driver’s licensing centre was charged with fraud after allegedly helping individuals obtain legitimate licences using fake identification documents.

“When things like this continue to happen, the problem is systemic, not a one-off bureaucratic error like the Minister would have us believe. We need a full investigation, not only into these individual cases, but into their underlying causes,” said Bisson.