Story Archive

Escalation

Bela Kosoian “did not do anything wrong,” so she was not going to give her name to a policeman. A pictogram warning riders to hold the escalator handrail in the Montmorency train station in Laval, Que., Canada, was merely advisory, she thought. But after police warned her three times, Officer Fabio Camacho, plus backup that came to help, arrested her and gave her two tickets: for disobeying the sign, and for obstructing the officer. The Société de transport de Montreal had never previously given a ticket for not using a handrail on Montreal island, and Kosoian was acquitted. She sued, but lost. She appealed and lost again. But Justice Mark Schrager of the Court of Appeal of Quebec, dissenting, said the cop’s “honest but mistaken belief” that what Kosoian did was an infraction didn’t mean he wasn’t liable. Now the Supreme Court of Canada has agreed to hear the case. (AC/Montreal Gazette) ...So now it can decide whether the police can arrest you for doing something that isn’t illegal.