Deconstructing Decriminalization: A Genealogy of the Provincial Offences Administration, the Modern Fine, and Penalization in Ontario

Abstract

To begin this thesis, the exploration of the Provincial Offences Administration (POA), and its model of decriminalization, punishment, and social control, I believe it important to acknowledge and situate my work in relation to my own experiences as a former POA employee. Given both the role and responsibility of a POA City Clerk and First Attendant Facilitator (FAF) for the City of Ottawa during my seven years (2009-2016), I was exposed to many aspects of the system's operation. Considered a 'street-level bureaucrat', as Harris (2016: 124-127) frames such a position, my experiences saw me work on the front counter, the phones, and/or in close quarters, guiding persons fined through the process whether in relation to applying for court, mediation, payment plans, reopening cases, appeals, or review parking matters. During my time, I was not only able to see the law in action, the potential cultural values imposed in its spaces, as well as the "discretionary power" (124) bureaucrats possessed, but also the latter's limitations. Coming from a critical criminology background, I saw how this system and its model, through the experiences of those being the object of the POA and its employees' judgement and scrutiny, was potentially failing to serve them. Whether through rigidity in our sanctions, in extensions or reopening applications, in employees' perceptions of sanctioned people and their cases, and/or in other policies and practices, it seemed clear to me that the POA system was neglecting them and that my ability to aid people within its structures would be limited by various forces and factors. Yearning to discern more intimately what some of these factors and forces were, I turn to writing this thesis. Aware that not all of them could be studied, my research focuses on connecting my time at the POA with the macro social structures and genealogy shaping its model and practices. That said, this research and its interpretation is only one part of the story, greater focus is needed if we are to gain greater insight and comprehension into outcomes of punishment within