Judging my the comments here, it sounds like a few of you haven't read the article at all.
The Ferrari will be sold to a local dealer for $235,000, with 50 per cent of the proceeds going to a relative of the driver who was part owner with the driver but was not involved in the incident. The province will receive 20 per cent and the driver 30 per cent. Coleman said some of the sale money has to go back to the owners because they have bank loans to cover.
For starters, the "fine" (if you look at it in those terms) is $47,000. The car's owners are getting most of the money back from the sale.
More to the point, we're talking about seizing an item used to commit a crime. Some have described that crime as attempted murder in this thread.
I wonder, if I took a loaded gun into a shopping mall and fired indiscriminately, would anyone object when the police seized the gun from me?
Private property is all well and good. Quite right, it's essential to a well-functioning capitalist economy. But it's also a privilege. If you're not going to obey the laws of the land, then you forfeit your privilege of holding private property.
Slippery slope? Maybe. But we, as citizens, have a responsibility to keep our government in check through elections, and through recall procedures. Those predicting a doom-and-gloom scenario where the government indiscriminately seizes assets left, right, and centre conveniently forget that such a scenario is only possible if we're complacent about it.
Which, btw, seem to have worked pretty well in BC!
