This week on Driving Law, Kyla and Paul unpack the explosive private member’s bill known as Xavier’s Law — a proposal that would allow police to impose immediate 30-day driving bans with no appeal, no review, and no accountability.
The bill, introduced by a government backbencher but supported by cabinet, creates an entirely new form of roadside prohibition based solely on an officer’s opinion of “reckless driving.” While the legislation attempts to define that term, the definitions are so broad — from momentary tire slip on a wet road to honking a horn — that almost any driver could fall within them. Worse still, the prohibition is not reviewable. That means no hearing, no dispute process, and no mechanism for correcting an officer’s error.
Kyla and Paul trace through the bill section by section, outlining why it is constitutionally vulnerable and why its structure suggests more political symbolism than sound policy. Even more troubling is that the law appears disconnected from the tragedy it’s named after — doing nothing to prevent similar events while sweeping thousands of ordinary, careful drivers into a regime of automatic punishment.
The episode also covers a B.C. Uber driver who tried, unsuccessfully, to undo his guilty plea after learning that the points from his ticket would cost him his job. And in the Ridiculous Driver of the Week, the hosts look at a fully autonomous Waymo taxi that drove straight into an active police standoff — raising the question of who exactly should be “deterrable” when there’s no human behind the wheel.
Stream Episode 431 for the full discussion.
