MattWorld — Personal & Professional Development (1985–1988 & 1995–1996)

Ottawa Carleton Safety Council

Motorcycle Riding Course Instructor (MRC)

My time as a motorcycle safety instructor for the Ottawa-Carelton Safety Council was profoundly transformative, both as a candidate during 16-weeks of training camp, then as teacher and M-Class licensing agent for new street riders. My service with the MRC, however, began on very shaky ground.

When I was young and dumb the need for speed was great indeed. The first time I lost my motorcycle license for speeding, my 30 day suspension came through in February. Being the dead of winter, my 19 year-old brain thought, “What an excellent system! So this is how it works.”

The next summer, as I continued racking up speeding tickets like an idiot, I suppose they noticed too, as my second suspension sentence was triggered in May.

Truth is, I’ve been reamed out by so many cops so many times, I actually developed a psychological condition known as uniformaphobia, or fear of being around authority figures in uniform (customs agents, parking enforcement, shopping mall security, doesn’t matter).

While the state of nervous trauma triggered by any presence of actual police officers within a kilometre radius is bad enough, sweating bullets through airport customs is possibly worse. A polite reminder to simply remove my shoes and I almost drop to my knees screaming “GUILTY!” with fingers interlocked back-of-head ready for cuffing. My biggest true fear is someday they’ll invent a machine that can measure heart rate and perspiration from thirty feet and it will be over.

In March, 1985, three months before my second suspension came through, at the suggestion of a cute friend named Debby Carr, I applied to become a motorcycle safety instructor with Ottawa Carleton Safety Council, a licensing agent recognized by the Ontario Ministry of Transportation. The 16-week training camp was gruelling but I emerged victorious graduating top of my class. Then they ran my license.

As soon as that license checking machine went TILT, the governing powers split into two camps completely divided over how to handle the situation. The anti-Matt side wanted me burned at the stake then dragged naked by Harley through dirty gravel. The pro-Matt side—who just happened to see great potential in a new instructor—slammed the stupidity of a system that ran licenses of candidates at graduation instead of registration.

The two sides raged angry back and forth until the pro-Matt side finally pulled the nuclear option by declaring, “All you Matt haters pull out your licences and put them on the table. We’ll run everything through the system and if they’re as squeaky clean as the virtue of your argument, HE’S GONE.” Apparently no one reached for their wallets.

Regardless, the Ottawa chapter still had move fast to diffuse the big guns at the Ministry in Toronto who had already been tipped off by the anti-Matt squad. After one final meeting it was officially decided, from that day forward, licenses for all instructor candidates at all Ministry approved training programs across Ontario would be run upon application, not graduation (referred to as the “Matt Stepchuk Rule”). Don’t forget that shoulder check!