# What widely held misconceptions to foreigners have about your country? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 11, 2007, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-widely-held-misconceptions-to-foreigners-have-about-your-country/407534 "2007-06-11T04:26:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-widely-held-misconceptions-to-foreigners-have-about-your-country/407534/161 "2007-06-19T18:38:57Z")
[QUOTE=alphaboi867] Aren’t Canadian prosecutors all employed by the local provincial Ministry of Justice, instead of being elected on a local basis as in the US? Couldn’t a provincial Justice Minister just instuct eir subordinates not to file certain charges and overule them if they do? [/QUOTE] I’m no expert here (hey Canadian legal Dopers–little help?) but it would seem to me that while that _could_ happen, it would also leave the door open for the Justice Minister to be accused of acting _ultra vires_–outside of his or her jurisdiction. As you can see in [s. 91(27)](http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/const/c1867_e.html#distribution) of the Canadian Constitution, criminal law is a power reserved to the federal Parliament. Any Justice Minister who instructed his or her subordinates to ignore certain aspects of criminal law legislation could be said to be usurping Parliament’s constitutional power by tacitly amending its legislation, even informally. I know there have been cases where provinces overstep their bounds and venture onto Parliament’s turf, and the provinces get reined in when the matter goes to court. I imagine the same would apply here–if the easygoing Minister issued such an instruction, a gung-ho prosecutor might blow the whistle, and a constitutional court case would emerge. But as I said, I’m no expert, and this is just my WAG. It’s a good question, though, and I’d like to see some Canadian legal Doper weigh in on it. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-widely-held-misconceptions-to-foreigners-have-about-your-country/407534/162 "2007-06-19T21:14:09Z")
> [@featherlou](#): > > I think this is actually fairly accurate. I personally have seen people walking around downtown Calgary during lunch hour having a nice joint. Nobody seems to care. I know. You’re the one who told me. 😃 (Not directly, it was just something I read in a thread somewhere.) > [@Spoons](#): > > The police do have discretion, but I’d still have to say it’s not quite like Amsterdam. However, I’ll also grant that perhaps the situation is closer to Amsterdam than you’d find in any American city. That’s really all I’m saying: that the prevailing attitude is about the same, but the tolerance of marijuana is nowhere near as systematic as in Holland. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-widely-held-misconceptions-to-foreigners-have-about-your-country/407534/163 "2007-06-19T22:08:36Z")
Until two months ago… I honestly thought that “getting your car detailed” meant having racing stripes or a dragon painted on to your car. A coworker mentioned that she was getting her car detailed afterwork and I laughed and said “What are you getting?” She looked at me oddly “What do mean, what am I getting?” “Well, like a big dragon on your rear windshield or just like a stripe down one side?” She then explained to me that it meant having a detailed job done of cleaning your car. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2007, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-widely-held-misconceptions-to-foreigners-have-about-your-country/407534/164 "2007-06-20T17:01:21Z")
[QUOTE=fetus] I know. You’re the one who told me. 😃 (Not directly, it was just something I read in a thread somewhere.) \ [/QUOTE] No wonder it sounded familiar. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2007, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-widely-held-misconceptions-to-foreigners-have-about-your-country/407534/165 "2007-06-20T17:22:59Z")
[QUOTE=Push You Down] Until two months ago… I honestly thought that “getting your car detailed” meant having racing stripes or a dragon painted on to your car. A coworker mentioned that she was getting her car detailed afterwork and I laughed and said “What are you getting?” She looked at me oddly “What do mean, what am I getting?” “Well, like a big dragon on your rear windshield or just like a stripe down one side?” She then explained to me that it meant having a detailed job done of cleaning your car. [/QUOTE] I thought it involved both. Yes, there’s the cleaning, the chrome polishing, the paint touch up, carpet repair, etc, but that they would also add pinstripes and other decorations if desired. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-widely-held-misconceptions-to-foreigners-have-about-your-country/407534.md?page=8)