Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Montreal cops consider levying fines for verbal abuse

What will they do after they've fined...well, everyone.

Epically stupid idea. So of course it will pass.

Next step, ban any video taken by any citizen. We don't want those shootings showing up on Youtube, now do we?

Montreal municipal authorities are pondering a possible bylaw change that would allow police officers to fine a citizen who verbally insults them, Chief Inspector Paul Chablo of the Montreal police said Monday.

Bylaws conferring similar powers on the cops are already in effect elsewhere in the province, including Quebec City, Sherbrooke and Three Rivers, he said.

The rule change – discussed by the city executive committee last November – is scheduled for a follow-up in March, Chablo said.

The Montreal Police Brotherhood has been pushing for such a new rule since 2003.

“A bylaw like this has to be clear, it has to be understood by the officers, and it has to be applied in a proper context,” Chablo said.

It would also, he added, “have to respect rights and liberties and freedom of expression.”

Because of free-expression issues, he said, lawyers for Montreal’s civic administration are taking “a very, very cautious and analytical approach.”

No tentative text of any such a bylaw has been released, Chablo said.

He also said he could not provide the possible sizes of fines for first and subsequent offences.

”It’s in the very early stages,” he said. “We haven’t gotten to that point.”


Gee, I wonder if it has anything to do with this story from November...

MONTREAL — It is the most crude of curses in the English language, a four-letter expletive usually avoided in polite company. Yet in Montreal, the f-word is apparently not a swear word at all. A municipal court judge has ruled that a man who repeatedly tossed the expletive at two police officers during a confrontation was not swearing, because he wasn't taking God's name in vain.

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