Unbelievable!
Ontario woman arrested, jailed in U.S. for driving with a Canadian licence
Driving with a valid Ontario license is of course legal in all states and provinces. What the hell did the idiot cop think this woman was supposed to do – take a Georgia driver’s test and wait for a Georgia driver’s license for the privilege of driving through the state? Don’t these cops get any training at all? No wonder police violence is so widespread.
Not quite as bad as TSA officers not knowing that the “District of Columbia” is, in fact, in the United States and that driver’s licenses issued there are totally valid, government-issued IDs, but that’s still pretty bad.
Yes, the arresting officer definitely needs to be reprimanded. No common sense being used there at all.
Holy Cow! How stupid…
Back in the hippie days, anyone with long hair lived in fear of being pulled over by small town cops who in turn lived in fear of America being changed by “them long hairs”.
Living up north, a lot of my friends would head for Florida in the winter. Guess what states those hippies had to drive through to get there? Lot of scary stories…
Why the hell would they even send someone to jail over driving without a license? My sister did that when she was a kid, and she just got a ticket. And then the officer escorted her back to where she could get some legal drivers to drive her home.
The whole thing just seems like someone wanting to punish a “foreigner.”
He wanted proof she was really Canadian? Just look at her flapping head!
Nope, it was a shakedown, pure and simple. Ms Nield was wise to use social media to get the word out; cops need to be warier when they try their old (in this case very old) tricks to cover gaps in their personal or municipal budgets.
But 87mph in a 70mph zone? Did she do the metric conversion wrong?
That’s appalling (and hilarious), but at least the victims of that particular ignorance didn’t get thrown in jail!
Sounds like he was a she in the story. I found that kinda interesting.
The article is unclear, but it appears that perhaps the cop was claiming that an Ontario license is not valid unless you are also carrying your (original) Canadian passport of birth certificate. Does anyone know if that is technically correct? A quick bit of research suggests that it’s not.
The things I have found so far are this, about driving in particular:
Georgia does not appear to require an IDP, but says:
[My bold] That clearly excludes any obligation to carry your passport.
As for Federal requirements for foreign nationals in general, i.e. whether driving or not:
And a paper I-94 is often not issued, per:
I know as a permanent resident I’m supposed to carry my green card at all times; and it seems visitors are supposed to carry their I-94 at all times, except that it doesn’t usually exist in physical form now. But again, no mention of passport.
What if you’re an American with a Canadian driver permit? That is, you’re living in Canada, for work or education, and you have a Canadian driver permit, and you’re driving around while visiting family?
Thanks for looking up those cites. However, the reference to an “International Driving Permit” that may be required by some states for “foreign nationals” appears to be with respect to foreigners from abroad, not Canadians:
Is a Canadian drivers license valid in the US?
Yes, a full Canadian license that is current is valid in the United States. You may drive with your Canadian license within the borders of the U.S. due to reciprocal agreements that the U.S. and Canada have with each other in regards to driver’s licenses.
And the IDP isn’t required in Georgia anyway, even for foreigners from abroad.
So the police officer totally screwed up in a very big way.
I’m also unclear on how presenting a passport in any way “validates” the license. If it was suspended or otherwise invalid the passport wouldn’t prove a damn thing. And I don’t know about licenses in other areas, but the Ontario driver’s license is festooned with elaborate security features – it’s not something you can easily make or fake.
This sounds to me like the rural US South at its very worst.
I have little doubt that’s the case. I was just wondering if there was any technical justification for the officer’s actions, however unreasonable. It doesn’t seem so.
Perhaps this young lady should forget about just asking for an apology (expecting the rednecks to behave like polite Canadians?) and file a lawsuit.
I really believe it was a shakedown. Pay your bail and get lost. I am an expat with a Quebec licence (in French of course), but the one time I was stopped (in NJ) that didn’t phase the cop. But I guess the south is different.
Yeah, it reminds me of stories I heard from back when the village of New Rome, Ohio was in operation.
That actually happened to me in Georgia when I visited my mother. I was using my Taiwanese drivers license and got pulled over. My wife had our international drivers permits (which simply certify that our Taiwanese drivers licenses are valid) but I was alone. The cop called his supervisor and they after a bit they decided I was ok. They didn’t even issue a citation for the minor offense I was pulled over.
It probably helped that I was driving my mother’s car so they could see the last names matched.
In my case, they were really polite.
Excuse the nitpick: faze, not phase
I’ve told this story before, but it seems to fit here too.
A high school friend of mine spent 3-1/2 years in Alaska, while her Air Force meteorologist husband was stationed in Fairbanks. His next duty station was in San Antonio Texas.
My friend went to the Texas DMV to get a Texas dirver’s license. She was told about all the documentation she would need, and the written and driving tests she would have to take. She was surprised as it had never been that complcated with other moves.
When she asked “Why?” the clerk told her they didn’t accept foreign driver’s licenses. Stunned, my friend gently explained to the clerk that Alaska was a US state, but the clerk refused to believe her. The supervisor even seemed suspicious but didn’t want to hassle, so the Texas license was obtained.
The first time you told this, I almost posted, saying that I would’ve asked the DMV folks “How many stars are there on that flag over there? Does it sound familiar that Hawaii and Alaska are the reason we went from 48 to 50?”
Disclaimer: We fly a huge 48 star flag on holidays. I’m always disappointed that no one notices. I live in hope that a stranger will walk by and yell “Hey, whadja got against Alaska and Hawaii?”