MONTREAL: Giving your neighbor the finger, while perhaps not polite, is protected as part of a bird flapper’s right. Freedom of expression Under the Canadian Constitution, a judge recently ruled.
In a 26-page ruling, Judge Denis Galiatsatos of the French-speaking province of Quebec dismissed a case against a man accused of harassing his neighbor in a Montreal suburb.
“To be very clear, giving someone the finger is not a crime,” he said in a Feb. 24 ruling.
“Flip The proverbial bird A God-given, chartered right that belongs to every red-blooded Canadian,” he added, referring to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The suspect, Neil Epstein, a teacher and father of two, was arrested by police in Beaconsfield, Quebec in May 2021 for threatening and throwing his neighbor.
The clue “can’t be civil, It cannot be politeit may not be civilly… Nevertheless, it does not trigger criminal liability,” ruled Galiatsatos.
He added that despite the common language, “cases are not actually thrown out” but that in this case “the court is actually inclined to take the file and throw it out the window.”
“Unfortunately,” said Galiatsatos, “there are no windows in the courtrooms at the Montreal courthouse.”