Euphonius, I think the point is that even if you are legal the 'polite and friendly cops doing their thankless dangerous task' (of embezzling the public's money for personal gain) will be poking for holes in your legality. The goal posts have changed and you now need to mount your registration plate on forward so you can now be fined using the speed and other traffic cameras lest you might only yield at a set of lights instead of slavishly stopping at them even when nothing's coming like the cars are forced to, even though you bought the bike like this to begin with but a few years ago. As well as glue stickers on that your province don't issue and do bi-annual testing that most people are too scared to because they'll say you emissions are too high, or that you've changed the bike from stock too much (even though they are just repairs) and take the bike or plates off you.

Basically if you don't have a decent quality bike or a bike under two years old you're probably illegal somehow, if they start dredging for it.