No one should get arrested for expressing their opinion.
That being said, just because you can give someone the finger, doesn't mean you should.
Giving the finger is a ‘God-given right’, Canadian judge rules
211–220 of 318 posts
Re: Giving the finger is a ‘God-given right’, Canadian judge rules
#212Australian here. I find the excessive emotive flair throughout the judgment as pressing the boundaries on occasion. A court is supposed to act impartially and emotions kept in check. This kind of language could be appealable in Australia, see for instance, this news report from yesterday:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-10/dismissal-of-assault-...
Maybe it's just more common in Canada for judges to be more forthright with their opinions.
Re: Giving the finger is a ‘God-given right’, Canadian judge rules
#213Earlier quoted context omitted.
doesn't the noise from basketballs hitting concrete/asphalt drive you guys nuts?
Way better than listening to traffic.
My old place was on a Stroad with cars flying by at 40+ mph. I hated the car noise with a passion. I'll take children having good time over traffic noise any day.
Re: Giving the finger is a ‘God-given right’, Canadian judge rules
#214In the U.S., however, First Amendment protection for flipping the bird is not considered "clearly established" law in some portions of the country, and police officers can be protected by qualified immunity if they arrest you in retaliation for displaying the middle finger. The U.S. Courts of Appeal for the 2nd Circuit and 6th Circuit have held that flipping the bird is protected speech. (See Swartz v. Insogna, 2013,…
Any SC that would rule against that hand signal as anything but speech would be clearly making new law. There are strong forces that would like to do this, but at the moment the SC majority+ is not. Sign language is language.
To the other side... it may be worth attempting to rewrite the sign dictionary such that dissent is assult. Billions of $ already are spent on it monthly.
It's a long road to the SC. I think that is a feature.
Fire*3 might need another look https://youtu.be/4Z2uzEM0ugY
Re: Giving the finger is a ‘God-given right’, Canadian judge rules
#215Earlier quoted context omitted.
This comment is exactly why we need Charter Rights the government can't easily suspend. The utter lack of understanding of why these protections are needed is astounding. I wonder what they are teaching the kids in school. The government (and voters) won't hesitate to call the opposition "terrorists" and claim donating $5 to a cause is "supporting terrorism" and freeze your bank account so you can't pay rent or buy f…
From what i understand, a significant portion of those people would have had their bank accounts frozen from civil lawsuits anyways. So even without the emergencies act it was likely to happen anyways. > This time it's the other side, next time it's you. First they came for the violent criminals, and i did not speak up because i wasn't a violent criminal... oh wait i'm actually totally ok with that.
A donation to a cause is now a "violent crime"?
Re: Giving the finger is a ‘God-given right’, Canadian judge rules
#216If you look past the headline, this story is almost "basic sanity". The guy's neighbour didn't want the accused's kids playing in the street (in the suburbs) because they have a yard. To "prove" his point that it was dangerous he drove recklessly around the kids in the street. The accused flipped him off and (allegedly because he denies it) threatened him. Now frankly, I don't see why this would be hackernews-worthy,…
"If you look past the headline, this story is almost "basic sanity"" Actually, I think "basic sanity" would have been, if the accuser would have been charged with something - as clearly they were the aggressors and actually intentionally endangering children. And the judge seems to think so as well, but it seems all he could do in his position, was to metaphorical throw the case out of the non existing window. (if I…
> And the judge seems to think so as well, but it seems all he could do in his position, was to metaphorical throw the case out of the non existing window.
Judges aren't prosecutors, by design they cannot bring charges against people. Otherwise the prosecutor/judge separation would be a nonsense.
> if I am ever charged with something, I hope I am to be judged by someone like him
Unless you're a crazed and/or paranoid nightmare neighbour :D
Re: Giving the finger is a ‘God-given right’, Canadian judge rules
#217No one should get arrested for expressing their opinion. That being said, just because you can give someone the finger, doesn't mean you should .
You should read the ruling. If anyone deserves the finger it would be this dude and his family. After one of them assaulted the victim, multiple threatened to hit their kids, they accusing his flipping the bird at them as being a death threat with a "throat slitting" gesture.
Re: Giving the finger is a ‘God-given right’, Canadian judge rules
#218> [6] This injustice ends today. No it doesn't. Unless such actions have consequences for the police and prosecutors beyond their case being thrown out, this injustice persists. To claim otherwise is like saying the injustice of a robbery has been rectified because the robber was not allowed to keep the stolen goods. That's not what "justice" means. What the judge is really telling police and prosecutors is: You fail…
I am really unsure what was going on here - it seems the crown made no attempt to find the victim guilty, and the police had formally rejected charges (and as the ruling says literally told the complainant that if anyone had committed crimes it was them).
The judge also seems to believe that this is what the crown was wanting, so is there some reason that they could have been required to bring the case?
Re: Giving the finger is a ‘God-given right’, Canadian judge rules
#219Earlier quoted context omitted.
Montreal police are some of the worst police in Canada and the Montreal prosecutors always take any arrests by police before a Judge even if there are glaring mistakes at play. I know of a cancer patient that wanted medical assistance in dying. The hospital didn't want to provide it to her and lied to the police about her threatening to take a life of a doctor. She in fact was explaining to the doctor she would be ab…
In this case, they apparently ignored several prior complaints until the guy videotaped this guy giving the man (who tried to run over his kids on several occasions) the finger and making a gesture (wrongly) described as "throat slashing." Of course, this nutjob is absolutely paranoid and was constantly driving in a reckless manner around small children who wanted to play in their neighborhood, some of whom he videot…
> this nutjob is absolutely paranoid
If COVID's social experiment (especially masks, on both sides, as some bizarre litmus for "Are you crazy or sane?") taught us anything, it's that we should remember to measure ourselves by our communities.
If 9/10 of my neighbors think I'm a paranoid asshole, then I'm probably a paranoid asshole.
I should then spend some time reflecting on why they think that, rather than rationalizing and conspiring with my immediate family about how the rest of the world is out to get us by tagging the street with chalk drawings.
Re: Giving the finger is a ‘God-given right’, Canadian judge rules
#220Australian here. I find the excessive emotive flair throughout the judgment as pressing the boundaries on occasion. A court is supposed to act impartially and emotions kept in check. This kind of language could be appealable in Australia, see for instance, this news report from yesterday: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-10/dismissal-of-assault-... Maybe it's just more common in Canada for judges to be more forthr…
> A court is supposed to act impartially and emotions kept in check
What are you talking about? The whole point of a court is, by very definition, to judge