A woman from the community of Chertsey, north of Montreal, says she doesn't understand why she has to pay court fees to cancel a parking ticket she says was given out by mistake.
In the early morning hours of July 28 of last year, Sandra Germain was handed a $53 ticket after parking on Hotel de Ville Ave., in the Plateau, under a sign that forbade parking between 3 and 11 p.m. at night.
The ticket, however, was issued at 1:43 a.m., well outside of the parking restriction hours.
At municipal court, Germain pleaded not guilty, providing photos proving she had the right to park there.
Municipal court agents, however, told her those photos couldn't be accepted as proof of her innocence, and refused to cancel the ticket.
Several weeks passed, and with the ticket still unpaid, she got another notice from the city of Montreal — pay the ticket, come back to court, in Montreal, to contest it.
Chertsey is about an hour's drive from Montreal, and Germain told the Journal de Montreal she can't understand why she actually has to appear before a judge — and pay additional court fees — to contest the ticket. She told the paper it would cost her nearly as much in gas money to return to Montreal for a shot at getting the ticket cancelled.