Jean-Serge Brisson - Renegade With A Mission

By Mary Anne Thompson

In the recent election of Russell Township, Jean-Serge Brisson ran as councillor, and gained 1297 votes despite the fact that he spent some of the campaign time in jail on Innes Road in Ottawa for non-payment of a seatbelt fine.

His struggles with seatbelts began in 1975 when he had a serious accident, which he claims would have killed him had he been wearing his seatbelt. The car had rolled and landed on its top, crushing the car to the level of the top of the front seat. He feels the crushing would have included his head had he been strapped in his belt as the law requires.

After he came out of the hospital, recuperating from multiple burns, and saw his car, he started to believe that he would have been killed had he been wearing it. He was converted:  wearing seatbelts was something he could no longer do.

In 1988, the inevitable occurred: he was fined with not wearing a seatbelt, and in 1989, he appeared in court  to fight the charge. He was found guilty and fined. Since he was not wearing a seatbelt as a conscientious objector, as it were, he felt he should not be obliged to pay the fine. In May of 1989, Jean-Serge's driving license was revoked, more or less until he paid the $65 fine.

How long could his license be suspended, wondered Jean-Serge. In Dec 1990, in a roadside RIDE program, Jean-Serge was fined for driving while under suspension. In June 1991 he was back in court. He was prepared with seatbelt statistics that demonstrated they were not as safe as they were made out to be The court refused him the reading of his findings because he was not in court for a seatbelt fine. For 4 years, police did not fine him with a seatbelt infraction, even while he was driving under suspension.

However, in 1995, while he was driving from Toronto, a policeman who did not know Jean-Serge fined him for not wearing his seatbelt and then discovered that he was driving without a license. The court case was heard in Brighton, but once more he was refused the right to disclose his seatbelt findings. He was told that he would need to have a constitutional case on seatbelts.

In July, 2000, he was fined once more for failing to wear a seatbelt and for driving without a license. His day in court came on Nov 3, 2000, the day after the election debates in Embrun. Jean-Serge once more presented his evidence on seatbelts, only to be told that he had an accumulation of $9000 in fines to pay before his driver's license would be reinstated. Justice of the Peace, Michael Jolicoeur was not interested in a Constitutional challenge to mandatory seatbelts. Jean-Serge was sentenced to 105 days in jail with no time for an appeal. He was taken from the court directly to jail.

While in jail he went on a hunger strike for 6 days, maintaining that he would not eat as long as he was denied access to documents that would allow him to file an appeal. One has 15 days to file the papers for an appeal, and 30 days to complete application for appeal. While in jail his friends found him a lawyer--Michael Swinwood of Almonte--who would file the appeal for him. On Nov 22, Jean-Serge was out of jail, not for good behaviour, as popularly believed, but because his appeal was accepted. His next court date is in April, 2001.

But this is not the only battle that Jean-Serge is fighting. In 1991, he burnt his vendor's permit for his radiator shop as part of his protest of the mandatory collection of PST and GST by businesses. On each invoice that his customers receive is printed the following: "This firm does not collect GST or PST. If you feel this tax should be paid you may send it yourself."

He arrived at this position, when after 16 years of assiduously collecting and submitting the PST, a late fee of $45 was applied to him for failure to submit the PST on time. This started him thinking about the right of government to require a business to collect tax for them. Before 1985, Jean-Serge indicated that the government was the tax collector, but that subsequent to that time, businesses were responsible for collecting tax. The compensation allowed businesses had never interested him. "I never took the compensation in the first place. Reason is that if I accepted the compensation, it would have meant that I accepted working as a slave for the government.  So I did it for free simply because I felt it was my way to help society."  

In 1991 Jean-Serge formally resigned as the government's tax collector, returning his vendor's permit, informing the government of the "slavery issue" involved in this form of collection. The government simply returned his vendor's permit, refusing to accept his "resignation." He was told that his permit would be no longer be valid only when his business stopped or if the government took the permit away. Without a permit, one cannot have a business. In that way, the government indicated their desire to keep Jean-Serge in business. This pushed Jean-Serge, on Oct 1991, into burning his vendor's permit, in front of CBC cameras, to the horror of a government employee.

Jean-Serge sent the provincial government a bill for collecting their taxes for 6 years. The original bill he sent them was for $12,000 plus 10% interest and penalty. It grew to be $18,000.

Needless to say, Jean-Serge did not register with the GST. In 1993, Jean-Serge was charged with failure to file a GST return.

"The federal government charged me for failure to file a GST return, and the court found me guilty of not filing and fined me $2000 or 20 days in jail. I never paid the fine and I have not gone to jail on it. The fact is  that this has happened 6 years ago.What are they waiting for?"

His appeal was rejected. Even though Jean-Serge did not file GST, he feels there was not enough political will to delegate Revenue Canada to proceed with a second charge.

Since 1991, Jean-Serge has not filed an income tax return. He keeps scrupulous files, and is prepared at any time to be audited, providing the various governments fulfill their obligation to collect the GST and PST.

Since 1986, Jean-Serge has been involved with the Libertarian Party of Canada, which was first formed in 1974. He became the President of the Libertarian Party in 1997, and he became their leader this May at the convention in Mississauga.

As leader, he helps to direct the political ideology and philosophy of the party. At the heart of his philosophy is the need to live his politics, not simply discussing it in theory--enjoying freedom while respecting the freedom of others.

"Jean-Serge Brisson - Renegade With A Mission" is reprinted from page 6 of the December 21, 2000 edition of The Prescott-Russel News, 793 Notre Dame St., Suite 3, Embrun, Ontario K0A 1W1
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