Freedom of Expression? Not in Taber, Alberta, Canada (Illegal to swear or yell!)
HughFreakingDillon
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http://news.nationalpost.com/2015/03/10/taber-alberta-outlaws-bad-behaviour-with-75-fine-for-spitting-in-public-and-150-for-yelling-or-swearing/
TABER, Alta. — Do not disturb.
Or yell, or swear or spit on the sidewalk.
The southern Alberta town of Taber, population 8,104, which calls itself Canada’s corn capital, has brought in a bylaw to clamp down on bad behaviour.
But the fines may leave a bad taste in the mouth for anyone who breaks the law.
Reading like a page from the Old West, the bylaw includes a $75 fine for spitting in public and a $150 penalty for yelling, screaming or swearing in a public place. There are also limits on noise from bars.
The town’s “quiet hours” are between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m.
“My personal reaction was well, it’s Taber. But my legal reaction was uh oh. I don’t think that’s going to pass muster with freedom of expression and freedom of association,” said Linda McKay-Panos, executive director of the Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre at the University of Calgary.
“I think it’s the culture of that place, but anywhere in Canada we have the protections of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and [that includes] Taber.”
‘We’ve got crime and insurrection fought to a standstill’
.
The bylaw was put in place to “regulate and prohibit certain activities in order to prevent and compel the abatement of noise, nuisances, graffiti and public disturbances and to provide for a curfew for minors.”
Taber’s top cop has a sense of humour about the reaction the bylaw has elicited.
“We’ve got crime and insurrection fought to a standstill,” Police Chief Alf Rudd said.
“You know 57,000 tweeters in five minutes can’t be wrong … I see people are having fun with it and I can appreciate that, but if they’re thinking the Taber Police Service has the capacity to do the type of enforcement that’s being talked about, that’s not going to be happening.”
Ms. McKay-Panos, who teaches constitutional law at the University of Calgary, said the bylaw appears unconstitutional and would be unlikely to stand up in a court of law.
“Especially the part about swearing in public. If I’m walking down the street heading to a store and quietly swear to the person beside me, I could be caught by the bylaw,” she said.
“I think you could argue swearing is pretty close to the core of what we want to protect because it’s either self-fulfilling speech or it’s personal expression of an opinion. That is very closely guarded under the Constitution.”
Other aspects of the bylaw are also disturbing, added the law expert, who noted there is no definition of what a swear word is. She said there’s also a section that allows police to order groups of three people or more to disperse — which goes against freedom of association.
Chief Rudd said the bylaw is no different than a section in the Criminal Code about causing a public disturbance, and allows officers to deal with “momentary lapses in proper judgment.”
“The application of this law will be done with discretion, by experienced trained officers who are trusted in the community. If someone finds themselves charged under this section, I would guess it would be pretty extenuating circumstances.”
First offence penalties for infractions under Taber’s Community Standards Bylaw 4-2015:
Parent/guardian allow minor in public place during curfew: $100
Placing graffiti on property:$2,500
Failure to remove graffiti: $250
Urinating/depositing human waste in public place: $250
Spitting in public place: $75
Fighting in a public place: $250
Being a member of an assembly and failing to disperse as directed by a peace officer: $250
Loitering: $250
Panhandling: $75
Yelling, screaming or swearing: $150
Drinking establishment making noise: $2,000
Allow, suffer or permit noise likely to disturb others: $150
Allow, suffer or permit noise from premises or property: $150
Allow, suffer or permit noise from vehicle: $150
Activate or apply engine retarder brakes: $150
Allow or permit noise between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m.: $150
.
With files from the National Post
TABER, Alta. — Do not disturb.
Or yell, or swear or spit on the sidewalk.
The southern Alberta town of Taber, population 8,104, which calls itself Canada’s corn capital, has brought in a bylaw to clamp down on bad behaviour.
But the fines may leave a bad taste in the mouth for anyone who breaks the law.
Reading like a page from the Old West, the bylaw includes a $75 fine for spitting in public and a $150 penalty for yelling, screaming or swearing in a public place. There are also limits on noise from bars.
The town’s “quiet hours” are between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m.
“My personal reaction was well, it’s Taber. But my legal reaction was uh oh. I don’t think that’s going to pass muster with freedom of expression and freedom of association,” said Linda McKay-Panos, executive director of the Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre at the University of Calgary.
“I think it’s the culture of that place, but anywhere in Canada we have the protections of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and [that includes] Taber.”
‘We’ve got crime and insurrection fought to a standstill’
.
The bylaw was put in place to “regulate and prohibit certain activities in order to prevent and compel the abatement of noise, nuisances, graffiti and public disturbances and to provide for a curfew for minors.”
Taber’s top cop has a sense of humour about the reaction the bylaw has elicited.
“We’ve got crime and insurrection fought to a standstill,” Police Chief Alf Rudd said.
“You know 57,000 tweeters in five minutes can’t be wrong … I see people are having fun with it and I can appreciate that, but if they’re thinking the Taber Police Service has the capacity to do the type of enforcement that’s being talked about, that’s not going to be happening.”
Ms. McKay-Panos, who teaches constitutional law at the University of Calgary, said the bylaw appears unconstitutional and would be unlikely to stand up in a court of law.
“Especially the part about swearing in public. If I’m walking down the street heading to a store and quietly swear to the person beside me, I could be caught by the bylaw,” she said.
“I think you could argue swearing is pretty close to the core of what we want to protect because it’s either self-fulfilling speech or it’s personal expression of an opinion. That is very closely guarded under the Constitution.”
Other aspects of the bylaw are also disturbing, added the law expert, who noted there is no definition of what a swear word is. She said there’s also a section that allows police to order groups of three people or more to disperse — which goes against freedom of association.
Chief Rudd said the bylaw is no different than a section in the Criminal Code about causing a public disturbance, and allows officers to deal with “momentary lapses in proper judgment.”
“The application of this law will be done with discretion, by experienced trained officers who are trusted in the community. If someone finds themselves charged under this section, I would guess it would be pretty extenuating circumstances.”
First offence penalties for infractions under Taber’s Community Standards Bylaw 4-2015:
Parent/guardian allow minor in public place during curfew: $100
Placing graffiti on property:$2,500
Failure to remove graffiti: $250
Urinating/depositing human waste in public place: $250
Spitting in public place: $75
Fighting in a public place: $250
Being a member of an assembly and failing to disperse as directed by a peace officer: $250
Loitering: $250
Panhandling: $75
Yelling, screaming or swearing: $150
Drinking establishment making noise: $2,000
Allow, suffer or permit noise likely to disturb others: $150
Allow, suffer or permit noise from premises or property: $150
Allow, suffer or permit noise from vehicle: $150
Activate or apply engine retarder brakes: $150
Allow or permit noise between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m.: $150
.
With files from the National Post
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They are doing this to crack down on the young Mennonite men and teens who congregate and hang out in the town parking lots......because what the fuck else are you going to do in Taber.
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The Ugly Underbelly exposed by Community Standards bylaw
In the last 24 hours I have been swamped with media requests to comment on the Taber, AB bylaw named Community Standards. Let me tell you a little bit about why I chose to speak out against the bylaw and what I have learned from exposing the underbelly of racism in rural Alberta.
I will start with the fact that I am not paid by any organization/party/business/school to speak on this. I lost an entire day’s pay for my work, pay that my family depends on. I willingly spoke against the bylaw because I genuinely was incensed that a town council would pass a draconian law limiting freedoms that I hold dear: speech and assembly. AndI live in a small rural town in Southern Alberta.
What happened after I started speaking out on social media was telling. Initially, the only people who paid attention were friends. Then friends of friends began to notice and retweet things. And within a few hours I had the first of a dozen journalists call me. Soon, it had become a viral story.
Then, the racists and the bigots emerged. They defended the bylaw with veiled statements about the “real” problem they saw in Taber. Prodded by people who knew what they were doing, these people exposed the ugly nature of this bylaw and the real reason it was enacted: a religious and ethnic minority in the town is blamed for crime, threatening activity, poor parenting, and something a few people called“not acting like normal people in Taber.”
See the problem isn’t that town councils make legal errors sometimes or that some residents of a town can be bigots. The problem is that too many people believe that there is a “normal” way to act and that they can determine what that is. The problem is that they think it is legitimate to use the extensive arm of the state to control people so that they act “normal”.
Even in small town rural Alberta, a place I love and have chosen to raise my family in, there is no such thing as “normal”. No one can use the state to control my right to speech, assembly, religion, etc by defining a manner of behaviour they deem appropriate. If you value your rights,any of your rights, then you need to value all rights, including the right for annoying people like me to say things or do things you may not value. If we begin to imagine that we can control the rights of some groups because they “might” be problematic or loud or say things we oppose then we don’t actually believe in the rule of law, we just want to have the power of the state behind what we deem normal and right.
I have had to call out the racist notions of people who probably think they aren’t racists. The sad reality is that until we all face our ugly underbellies we won’t be able to fully, completely, welcome religious, racial, and ethnic minorities into our towns. We all have a responsibility to act democratically every single day. Today I got to do it on a national stage. How will you defend freedom and democracy today?
count me out.
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And I better remember to stay away from Taber. I'll get fined before even leaving the fucking airport (bus depot?).
Mind them!
Kickstarter campaign to get Kevin Bacon to have a Footloose dance party/protest in Taber against the new bylaw
"We're not lawyers, and we're certainly not going to Google it."