Ontario Highway Traffic Act

The police most likely believed your vehilce was insured/registered, or you would have been charged for not having insurance and not registering your vehicle (much more serious charges).

In regards to what you were charged with, not surrendering the documents is the offence. That being said, all your charges are what I'd consider relatively minor ...

Your description of what happened would not garner much sympathy in Court. Typically the best advice is to request disclosure and review the evidence against you. If there's a glaring error in the officer's notes, you may want to go to trial. If not, you can try and work out a plea deal with the Crown to a reduced speed.

can they issue a Summons for Disobey Sign?

Yes, a summons can be issued in lieu of an offence notice even for charges with a set fine. Its not a common practice, but there are certain circumstances where it may be warranted.

Common reasons why:
1) More than 30 days have passed since the offence took place.
2) There are multiple charges, one of ...

I believe the officer was incorrect. The fault determination rules state the following:

This section applies with respect to incidents in parking lots. The degree of fault of a driver involved in an incident on a thoroughfare shall be determined in accordance with this Regulation as if the thoroughfare were a road.

The rules also state:

If ...

The suspension is automatic with a conviction. The only way to avoid the suspension is to be found not guilty at trial or work out a plea deal with the Crown to a different offence that doesnt entail an automatic suspension.

Since youve already been convicted your only hope would be to get the matter reopened. This can be done for a valid legal ...

Unless there was some type of signage exempting local traffic, you're still not allowed to make the turn. As stupid as it sounds, with all the "no turn" signage along Lawrence, I think you'd have to head right up to Bathurst to make a right, then loop back around. I'm not sure if it's still common or not, but some people have had luck getting the ...

Regardless of demerit points, 3 convictions will definitely impact your insurance rates. I'd request a pretrial meeting with the Crown and try to work out a deal. Hopefully they'd be willing to drop one or two of the charges in exchange for a guilty plea on the third.

If your friend wasn't charged by the officer at the time of the incident, it's very unlikely anything further will come of it. Technically the police have up to six months from the date of the offence to proceed with a charge, but I don't see why they would at this point. Quite likely the officer was simply unaware of the new law or cut your friend ...

No demerit points, but it's still a conviction on your record for insurance purposes.

The Toronto Police Service was big on booking HTA Court on an officer's day off to help with frontline staffing, but I agree with Hwybear that it's pretty rare otherwise. Why would a police service/municipality want to incur overtime expenses when it can easily be avoided?

Yes, you can plead guilty at any time.

Its quite likely the officer would have to tell the Court why he stopped your car, since thats what leads to him discovering your expired insurance slip. It shouldnt change the outcome if youre found guilty, it will just make any type of fine reduction very unlikely.

In terms of going to trial though, theres not really much you can fight this ...

Yes, one year should be sufficient for a charter application to have the charges stayed (assuming the delay wasn't at your request). It's not something that happens automatically, and will require some effort on your part. Look under the Courts and Procedure folder for the thread about how to file an 11b.

I was thinking, since he is under my insurance, could I try to ask the prosecutor prior to the trial to change charges to non-moving.

Just be aware that insurance companies don't differentiate between so called moving versus non moving violations. They treat a minor speeding ticket the same as an expired licence plate sticker. They rank any ...

So how does one store a vehicle? Kept in a closed garage or must it always have a valid plate?
Reason I ask is I have a neighbour/friend who's working on rebuilding a classic 'cuda. He sometimes moves it onto his driveway to work on it for a few days and then stores it away until he has time to work on it again. He has no plates for it (yet ...