Granby, QC bylaw prohibiting insulting police officers online is “ridiculous”: BCCLA
Posted May 5, 2015 11:47 pm.
Last Updated May 6, 2015 10:04 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – People living in the small town of Granby, Quebec will have to watch what they post online. The council in the town located east of Montreal has passed a new bylaw which makes it illegal to talk smack about a cops or municipal government members on the internet.
Josh Paterson with the BC Civil Liberties Association calls it “ridiculous, preposterous and surely unconstitutional.” He thinks “its nuts that any government would try to legislate to prohibit that.”
“We’re not talking about threats to police officers here, libel or defaming that’s already able to be dealt by the courts too. What this seems to be getting at is just people saying something mean on Facebook or Twitter.”
He believes it’s an attack on freedom of speech. “Anyone who received a fine from the town council for posting on Facebook that they didn’t like a particular police officer could challenge that in a court of law.”
He hopes no other communities across the country follow suit. If caught, people could be fined could be anywhere from $100 to $1000.
