Comments on: Student fined $628 for sitting in a park

By: deborah

deborah — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:49:24 +0000

what happens if a canadian who lives in another province does not pay one of these fines - my son was just charged the astronomical sum of $144 for having an open beer bottle within the metro station (just going down the stairs & about to finish it & put it in a garbage can ) okay iknow he shouldnt have had alcohol in a public place but wouldn't a warning have sufficed given that he was about to throw it away & given that he was a young man taking public transportion, rather than driving, while under the influence if alcohol?
so what would happen if he didnt pay i wonder? & how does one find out what the actual fine rates are for these crimes?
i am sooo soooo pissed.

By: Daniel in Montreal

Daniel in Montreal — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 02:27:51 +0000

The situation in Montreal is getting to be absolutely ridiculous, to say the least. The pinacle being the poor woman who was fined, cuffed and thrown into a small cell for NOT HOLDING THE HANDRAIL AT A SUBWAY STATION. There is a limit to this type of thing, and passing a law which fines a person a sum of 100$ upon neglecting to grab onto a handrail, not to mention being cuffed and brutalized upon refusal to comlpy with such absurdity, is repulsive, to be kind.

By: mark

mark — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 05:47:22 +0000

funny i came to montreal to live and i was walkn to get something at the iga. when i see a friend i have not seen for like 20 years so i sit down to talk yes the cops see me but i took like 25mins to come talk to me and with more of them 5 in all like wow ok (by the way i have tattoos)1st thing who are you where you come from why your here have you been in jail do we have you on record so like what the hell no 0ne cant sit and talk to old friends with out the law comen down there backs wow the hell with this im moven back to t.o and maken sure no one i know comes here

By: This is not bull

This is not bull — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 23:45:19 +0000

So, being a smartass is now a ticketable offense? If so, I'd say being a jackbooted thug is a killable offense.

By: T

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 11:10:07 +0000

"This is alarming because it seems to suggest that police officers can use their powers to arbitarily punish anyone they don’t like."

Is that really so out of the ordinary?

By: This is bull

This is bull — Sat, 23 May 2009 05:00:22 +0000

The guy was being a smartass. If he fails to comply with the demands of the cops, it's his own fault. How easily could this entire situation have been averted had he simply agreed to move from the ledge.

By: sam marcus

sam marcus — Sat, 02 May 2009 05:08:10 +0000

the judge should fine the policeman that issued the ticket for abuse of power. if the judge does not then we should all contribute to his oposition in the next election.

By: Derek Madge

Derek Madge — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 15:52:14 +0000

This is, unfortunately, becoming too common.
In Britain recently ( a week or 2 ago) legislation was passed that could have anyone who photographs a police office *in public, doing his or her duties*, arrested under terrorism law. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7892273.stm

Is this the intent? No. But it is too open to interpretation and, as the item here shows, too open to abuse. In the USA, you also need to be careful. http://www.tricities.com/tri/news/local/article/man_arrested_for_unlawful_photography/11576/P50/

Or perhaps some courageous people need to not be careful, and court arrest.

By: mik

mik — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 08:53:39 +0000

"This is alarming because it seems to suggest that police officers can use their powers to arbitarily punish anyone they don’t like."

The most alarming thing is the amount of people who haven't realised this yet.

By: copcar

copcar — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 14:48:49 +0000

....and i thought the police in the US abused their powers at times.... this is really mind blowing.

By: Tori

Tori — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 19:40:11 +0000

Yet another story related to the abuse of power. It makes one question just how free freedom really is. What ever happened to serve and protect anyway?

By: Jana

Jana — Sat, 24 May 2008 04:16:51 +0000

Exactly James, less than a month ago some friends and I were celebrating a birthday in a Verdun venue, soon to be shut down by the cops. Basically, when the cops showed up, evryone from the party went out to confront them. The policemen said that they were going to ticket the owners and tried to handcuff a few people, and they planned to do so until we reminded them that 2 officers cannot take action on more than 10 people, that by law they were required to call for backup assisstance before proceding. By the time backup arrived, we had all left off to a new destination, no one was arrested or ticketed. Moral of the story: know your rights and have people there to back you up and you won't get harassed. It pays to know obscure rules, cops always take advantage of the situation if they know more than you, impose fear upon you or catch you off guard.

To deal with cops harassement free you must know your rights and know police force tactics, this makes their special training useless. Secondly, have people there (unfortunately, not always possible) not just to physically outnumber the officer if they decide to deal with you in unprofessional ways but as witnesses too.

By: james

james — Tue, 20 May 2008 16:33:23 +0000

This is pure crazyness. When the public bans together to stop such crap as this, they will lose their power. One of these days people, were all gonna have to dismantle our governments, they will force our hands. In fact, they already are. When the people of the world finally grow tired of tyranny, they will ban together to stop it. Untill then, DONT complain, just talk to others who feel the same, an wait for a time to take back whats ours, LIFE!

By: Paul514

Paul514 — Thu, 15 May 2008 02:32:33 +0000

The entire province of Quebec is going down the toilet due to government corruption from the dirty cops to dirty politicians. The guy is lucky he only got a fine given the typical violent behavior of the police here.

By: Jess

Jess — Tue, 13 May 2008 21:03:50 +0000

I used to live in an apartment Buffalo, New York. I would walk to work everyday, three blocks from where I lived (I was 18 at the time). Every morning in the summer there would be two police officers patrolling my street and every morning they would whistle at me and make degrading remarks (sexual remarks). I would be dressed in shorts with a baseball cap on and minding my own business. It got to the point that when I saw them coming towards me I would cross the street and try to avoid them. I was so afraid of them because I have heard the stories of the abuse of power and how they can basically get away with anything and everything. I thought about calling the Buffalo Police Department and complaining, but I know that often times that just leads to more harassment, plus I knew that my young age didn't help my case. Sometimes I would ask my neighbor to wake up early and walk me to work so that I wouldn't have to pass them alone.

I can't even begin to name all of the situations I have been in with police officers and others (including border control into Canada) abusing their power. We are law abiding citizens and deserve to be treated like such. No one should be above the law and no one should have that much power that they can go unchecked.

By: Adrian

Adrian — Tue, 13 May 2008 03:15:11 +0000

C'mon folks. Is anyone surprised by this? Those of you who seem to think this is an issue only in Quebec, you are sadly mistaken. Individual freedoms in Canada are disappearing at an alarming rate. Police and government lackeys are able to abuse their power in almost any way they choose. If someone chooses to argue, they are fined, harassed, arrested or any combination of the three.
Realistically, we can't complain about anything in this insane "model for human rights". If we do, we will be faced with the various dreaded human rights commissions, who can, at will, do just about anything they want to us with no fear of reprimand.
We'd better start waking up. Orwell is laughing...

By: Jeff

Jeff — Sat, 10 May 2008 14:08:04 +0000

@Canuck

I agree, I have been reading more and more stories about abuse of power. Since there is a shortage the cities have to lower their standards. This is resulting with forces that don't have the judgement or the mettle to be a law enforcement officer.

Law Enforcement should have our resepect, however respect may have been a given in the past but in light of all of the recent events I think that Law Enforcement has to re-earn our respect.

By: Mike F

Mike F — Mon, 05 May 2008 01:44:05 +0000

I used to live in NDG, right across from the police station. The things I saw were not OK. The cops in NDG used to harass blacks terribly. My neigbour was black and they would pull him over at least twice a week "for routine" and cause him to be late for work. Eventually causing him to lose his job. We were both so disgusted we both moved to Ottawa. eleven years later, and not once has he been pulled over. I (being white) was never pulled over.

By: Canuck

Canuck — Sun, 04 May 2008 15:52:41 +0000

This is happening all over Canada. The reason is that police forces are desperately short of new people (I heard the RCMP need 4000 new recruits) and they are hiring goons. It's very serious. People are getting hurt.

By: G

Fri, 02 May 2008 15:11:08 +0000

Yet another reason why I moved out of Quebec.