JCK-at-large SITE

I thought I was moving along fairly briskly.  Sunday afternoon, Niagara escarpment off to the south, the sounds of Renato Falaschi filling the airwaves, light traffic flowing East — this was a perfect Spring drive through scenic western Ontario into Greater Toronto on the 401 Highway, centre lane, cruise control.  Suddenly an apocalyptic object appeared in the rearview mirror, bright white with a prominent black stipe — like a UFO that had dropped out of the sky!  And it was sitting right on my rear bumper!  I was expecting some kind of levitation when it darted around me on the inside — while to my left, a silver Audi flew by me in a blur!  It was like I was standing still.  Last I saw of our striped white friend, he was chasing the silver bullet into the distance, weaving his way through all three lanes of traffic.  

“Those guys are racing!,” I said.  “They must be doing twice my speed!”  Of course that seemed unlikely, me doing a solid 110-kms-per-hour in the centre lane. 

“I doubt they’re doing 200,” said my passenger, now suddenly wide-awake.  “But where is the OPP?”  

I tightened my white knuckle grip on the steering wheel as the speedsters disappeared into the growing maze of traffic ahead.  “Exactly.  These guys are crazy.” 

In fact, I was to learn that ‘vehicular psychos’ abound in this area, that the game is “Clout” and road racing has become a popular pastime.  People lay the blame on COVID-19 for the breakout problem: “Without bars and clubs and other people’s houses, empty parking lots turned into the primary venues of the city’s frozen delirium,” says the Globe.  In fact, in 2020, between mid-March and the end of June, the police handed out 442 tickets for racing and stunt-driving in Toronto alone.  People also blame the banality of condominium cities with their greys and black plastic looks, driving the youth into the pursuit of beauty in their souped-up cars.  So now there are meet ups and “takeovers” around strip malls in Etobicoke, guys with their beautiful machines ready to get out and race — and add some dazzle to the drabness.  “Wild at Heart,” the title of an old text came to mind:  “They may be misplaced, forgotten, or misdirected, but in the heart of every man is a desperate desire for a battle to fight, an adventure to live, and a beauty to love” (John Eldridge, 1996). 

Whatever the cause, it was definitely time to buckle up.  According to Stephen Marche in the Globe and Mail,  “If you live in the Greater Toronto Area, you know you live in an area filed with vehicular psychos.  Street racers, chasing clout on social media, have turned the region’s roads into their own personal raceways” (G&M, Aug 27, 2022).  Marche teams up with Sergeant Mark Walton for a night on the roads of York Region, a man for whom chasing vehicles well over 200 kilometres an hour is “more or less an every night thing!”  They witness the mayhem in west Toronto firsthand: “The reason that black Benz just cut us off, the reason he decided to race a cop on the streets of Vaughan, is the oldest reason there is: a young man wanted to show off.  He wanted a cop chase story, something to tell his buddies.  He was chasing clout.  In Toronto, the drivers are chasing clout, and the cops are chasing the clout chasers.” 

Not that the chase goes on forever.  “The police in the GTA decide who to chase and who not to chase.  It’s all about public safety.  Once speeds exceed 200 kilometres per hour, the chase is usually deemed unsafe.”  Now there was small comfort for those of us who like a more measured pace.  Who wants to have vehicles appearing out of nowhere to sit on your back bumper, then flying by you at twice your speed?  It’s unsettling!  Indeed, some three quarters of Ontario drivers testify to feeling unsafe on the roads.

But not to worry, says the Globe— at least not too much!  The police are still catching their share of offenders.  This is thanks to their ‘eye in the sky.”  They have a permanent force of eight officers plus a helicopter in York Region called Project Takeover.  This joint operation led to 79 arrests, 346 charges and 61 impounded vehicles in 2022 alone.  Now the Province has added five new helicopters at a price of $124 million.  Durham, Halton, Peel, Toronto — each will have its own.  Which makes street racing, according to Stephen Marche, “just that much worse an idea than it was before.”

Not only are the choppers in the sky.  This region has a full-time social network inspector who picks up “clout braggarts” on social media.  It leads to surveillance on properties, impounded vehicles, serious penalties.

The article concludes with a somber warning: Running from the police is just a bad idea, They will catch you and will not be happy.  They will stake out the houses of repeat offenders.  They will show up one morning and impound the vehicle.  They will post pics of their prize catches on their walls.  “The stakes for stunt driving are high: an immediate 30-day suspension of a roadside license.  Then, if you’re convicted, they suspend your license for one to three years for the first offence, three to ten years for the second, lifetime for the third.  Stunt driving is often a prelude to bus-taking and long distance walking.”  

This was such good news!  And it got me thinking about the search for God.  Where is God when the roads are taken over by psycho drivers?  And imagine if you happened to be among those ‘impacted’ by their madness? As Philip Yancey asked some time back, “Where is God when it hurts?”

My small research led me to think that when we are asking the hard questions, we just need to intensify the search.   As the great Pascal said, “God reveals himself to those who seek him.”  Truest words.  For a starter, I like Why Believe: Reason and Mystery as Pointers to God, by C. Stephen Evans ( Emeritus Professor of Philosophy and Humanities at Baylor).  Evans makes the case for faith by pointing to objective evidence, to the signs and clues that God displays “where the rubber meets the road” —  in ordinary human experience.

He gives an example of your wife losing track of time and leaving you with the kids — when you should be at an important appointment (on the golf course).  Do you divorce the lady because of what happened?  Of course not!  Your relationship is such that you know she must have had a very good reason to be late — even though you have no clue what that might be as you try to manage supper for the tribe!

So Evans points to Jesus as the final revelation of that God.  He can lead us to the Father.  And once you’re in that relationship, of trust, and grace, and love that will not let you go, you can relax again.  You can get back into that centre lane.  You can set it on cruise control.