Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Giving the finger is a ‘God-given right’, Canadian judge rules

citoyens.soquij.qc.ca

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 318 posts

Re: Giving the finger is a ‘God-given right’, Canadian judge rules

#61

Post by Waterluvian »

908B64B197 wrote: post #54
rossdavidh wrote: post #49

I admit, it's long. But the ending was brilliant. "In the modern-day vernacular, people often refer to a criminal case “being thrown out”. Obviously, this is little more than a figurative expression. Cases aren’t actually thrown out, in the literal or physical sense. Nevertheless, in the specific circumstances of this case, the Court is inclined to actually take the file and throw it out the window, which is the only…

Wow that's colorful for court documents. I don't see how it could have turned out any other way. I'm just surprised he was actually arrested for something that's obviously covered by the first amendment. This reeks incompetence from the district attorney, trying to intimidate the man out of his rights like that.

Americans are harassed and arrested _ALL THE TIME_ for obvious 1A protected speech. This is why Courts of nations with true free speech are very eager to push back when police abuse their power. This prose is just that. An absolute scolding.

Re: Giving the finger is a ‘God-given right’, Canadian judge rules

#63

Post by Jeff_Brown »

namuol wrote: post #53
belval wrote: post #8

If 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,…

[flagged]

There are drivers like that -- a surprising lot of them, even -- but it's quite a leap to.say drivers are like that.

Re: Giving the finger is a ‘God-given right’, Canadian judge rules

#64

Post by marcellus23 »

jenadine wrote: post #20
marcellus23 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really following. Are you saying you have a problem with the idiom "God-given"?

I do have a problem. It's like the sexist language or the N word. Their just words so nothing to be offended by, right? But they just perpetuate and normalise the concepts. In this case non-sensical religious things.

There's a pretty big gulf between this and the N word.

Re: Giving the finger is a ‘God-given right’, Canadian judge rules

#65

Post by version_five »

tjohns wrote: post #58
908B64B197 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow that's colorful for court documents. I don't see how it could have turned out any other way. I'm just surprised he was actually arrested for something that's obviously covered by the first amendment. This reeks incompetence from the district attorney, trying to intimidate the man out of his rights like that.

The first amendment to the US constitution does not apply to Canada. Unless you believe US law is globally binding. (That said, Canada does have their own freedom of speech, under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.)

Canada's charter of rights and freedoms isn't worth the paper it's printed on, especially in Quebec where the government actively pre-empts it (it has a clause that allows this, explaining why it's worthless) when it doesn't line up with their ideology.

Re: Giving the finger is a ‘God-given right’, Canadian judge rules

#66

Post by m_0x »

cldellow wrote: post #16
UncleEntity wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> To "prove" his point that it was dangerous he drove recklessly around the kids in the street. It probably is dangerous [0] because people don’t let their kids play in the street anymore so drivers aren’t used to having them there. Not like when I was a kid where we would get ball games going and pause to let the cars pass. People expected kids to be playing in the street so didn’t drive like complete lunatics. Can’…

From reading the decision and looking at Google Maps: the street is a short, narrow dead-end street in the suburbs. Most of the people who live there have young children who play together. It would be very difficult to accidentally find yourself on this street, driving quickly. Of course, it's dangerous in the sense that anything to do with cars is dangerous. But it seems pretty safe as far as these things go.

> It would be very difficult to accidentally find yourself on this street, driving quickly.

As a parent of a 6 years old, I always assume all drivers are not paying attention to the road but rather to their phones when my kid is playing in the street (with supervision because I don't know if he will react quickly to a car coming his way)

It sucks, because I used to play in the street without supervision (to my best knowledge). But today, cars are faster and drivers are more distracted.

Re: Giving the finger is a ‘God-given right’, Canadian judge rules

#67

Post by ipaddr »

blendergeek wrote: post #23
UncleEntity wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> To "prove" his point that it was dangerous he drove recklessly around the kids in the street. It probably is dangerous [0] because people don’t let their kids play in the street anymore so drivers aren’t used to having them there. Not like when I was a kid where we would get ball games going and pause to let the cars pass. People expected kids to be playing in the street so didn’t drive like complete lunatics. Can’…

> Not like when I was a kid where we would get ball games going and pause to let the cars pass. People expected kids to be playing in the street so didn’t drive like complete lunatics. In my neighborhood kids play in the street all the time. There are basketball goals up and down my street and the kids pause the ball games to let the cars pass. Are you sure that you don't just live in a different place now?

Saw kids playing on my last walk around. It still exists in some places.

Re: Giving the finger is a ‘God-given right’, Canadian judge rules

#68

Post by codetrotter »

m_0x wrote: post #66
cldellow wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From reading the decision and looking at Google Maps: the street is a short, narrow dead-end street in the suburbs. Most of the people who live there have young children who play together. It would be very difficult to accidentally find yourself on this street, driving quickly. Of course, it's dangerous in the sense that anything to do with cars is dangerous. But it seems pretty safe as far as these things go.

> It would be very difficult to accidentally find yourself on this street, driving quickly. As a parent of a 6 years old, I always assume all drivers are not paying attention to the road but rather to their phones when my kid is playing in the street (with supervision because I don't know if he will react quickly to a car coming his way) It sucks, because I used to play in the street without supervision (to my best k…

> I used to play in the street without supervision (to my best knowledge)

Bro, when I was a kid we went as far as to me intentionally walking into the street to slow cars down just to see what would happen ‘:)

Kids are crazy. Myself in the past included.

Re: Giving the finger is a ‘God-given right’, Canadian judge rules

#69

Post by wil421 »

UncleEntity wrote: post #14
belval wrote: post #8

If 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,…

> To "prove" his point that it was dangerous he drove recklessly around the kids in the street. It probably is dangerous [0] because people don’t let their kids play in the street anymore so drivers aren’t used to having them there. Not like when I was a kid where we would get ball games going and pause to let the cars pass. People expected kids to be playing in the street so didn’t drive like complete lunatics. Can’…

My kids 3 and under play in the street multiple times a week during the summer. Our neighbors kids will come out if they see and vice versa.

There’s kids that throw footballs and baseballs most weekends during the warm months in the road. They move over.

What kind of place are you living?

Re: Giving the finger is a ‘God-given right’, Canadian judge rules

#70

Post by ck425 »

nostromo wrote: post #38
snozolli wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

or the woman arrested for silently praying, in her head, while standing in front of an abortion clinic. Hmm... Looks like this happened in the UK: The video shows an officer asking Vaughan-Spruce if she was praying, to which she answers: “I might be praying in my head.” She was charged Dec. 15 with four counts of breaking a Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) around the abortion facility. A PSPO is intended to stop…

> abhorrent behavior How can any sane person watch this video and say her behavior was "abhorrent?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6E105a58p8 Videos like this make me so thankful for the US constitution.

The behaviour in a vacuum might not be so bad but she was consciously trying to test how far she could go before they broke a law made specifically due to anti-abortion protesters like her intimidating woman to the point they wouldn't use the services.
Post reply on HN