Canadian Chat → Booked for assault by bubbles

You gotta be shittin me. Must've been edited.
»www.liveleak.com/view?i= ··· 79331270

They obviously left out a lot with their 'few moments later' black screens.

I don't know Canadian law but here if a police officer tells you not to do something and you continue to do it despite his warning then you can be arrested for not following lawful orders depending on the situation. Assault charges seem a bit much, however.

Tiny bubbles cause international stir
»cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Can ··· 761.html

[...]

In a statement to the QMI Agency, Winkels stressed she wasn’t arrested for blowing bubbles.

“The fact is that the bubbles had nothing to do with my arrest,” she said. “The reason I was arrested is because I was wearing a backpack and had a lawyer’s phone number written on my arm. This number was given out by lawyers, and they advised us to have it written somewhere on our bodies.”

The 20-year-old was a volunteer street medic at the G20 and said she “wasn’t even protesting.”

“My medical supplies were taken and suggested they could be used as evidence for my charge,” she said.

Court records show she is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit mischief over $5,000.

Winkels said she was talking to another officer when “Officer Bubbles” came over and angrily told her to put her bubbles away.

“I was having a conversation with the female officer,” she said. “She asked me my name, and I preferred not to give it. If she had asked me to identify myself to the police, I would have shown them my ID which I was carrying in my pocket, however, she was talking to me person to person, not officer to civilian.”

Winkels asked the female officer if her bubbles were bothering her.

“She laughed and shrugged her shoulders, which I perceived as a ‘No big deal!’” she said. “After this point, Officer Bubbles stormed over and said what he said on the video.”

Winkels said she put the bubbles away and the officer went away.

She was later swept up with others when arrests were made at Queen St. W. and Noble St. in Parkdale.

“I was not ‘blowing them in his face’ or being rude, I was simply trying to keep the mood of the crowd light, as I figure happy people are less likely to start a violent outbreak,” Winkels said. “There was no way I could have blown them in his face because, as I said, he was nowhere near me when I was blowing them, until he came over to talk to me. He was standing roughly 20 or 30 feet away, and nowhere near the range of the bubbles.”

Winkels said she feels she was not treated fairly during the G20.

“I was denied many of my civil and human rights, and this whole situation has been blown out of proportion, no pun intended,” she said.

Sorry, no. You can't be arrested because a cop is abusing his power. Well... you can and he will just make-up charges, like assault with a deadly bubble. Then deny you access to a lawyer and deny you other fundamental rights.

I so almost hate the fact that I'm Canadian anymore. This whole G20 summit was the nail in the coffin for me. From the corrupt government to our high tax rate to this. I hate it all.

Sorry, but this wasn't a abuse of power. They got swept up with the rest of the idiots in the area. And no one got their access to a lawyer denied, and in Canada, your fundamental rights aren't absolute.

You'd be better off learning the law.

Another bad cop tarnishing the honest ones. Makes it hard to respect cops after seeing this.

Mashiki I find your point, while debatable as neither of you has posted source, to be IN MY OPINION to be the non Canadian way. Certain things we have in Canada is a way of life, and regardless of whether or not "to the letter of the law", most Canadians feel alot of wrongs and misdoings were accomplished by our government at and during the G20. The plain truth is a cop was rude, ignorant, intimidating, and threatened the girl FOR BLOWING BUBBLES. Lets think about that again. SHE WAS BLOWING BUBBLES. Now I don't know about you, but when my country of Canada is placed on the world's podium through an event such as the G20 summit, the last thing in the whole world I want is some cop who represents me and my country to be showcased as an asshole in said incident. I highly doubt you find one one Canadian who disagrees with me too. This whole incident has embarrassed our country as a whole, as its currently being debated and talked about around the world in many many countries media outlets. Law or not, I think we have all always felt that Canada was a little different than other places in the world. If we lose our standing as the country with the nicest, most politest people, then we are no better than anyone else.

Most of the city types have pushed for this type of policing.

If you've got problems with how courts have determined rulings in the past, and the way law is interpreted. I strongly suggest two things: Become a politician, or become a lawyer and sit on the bench. Because as it stands you don't have a clue why what is, is. Actually, I believe that they should have simply read the riot act and then started going balls to the walls arresting people who failed to comply. I believe it was a failing of the services involved and upper political crap inside the depts. which led to it being like that.

Canada is different. You have in general more rights, you also can have those rights curtailed according to both the charter and the criminal code if you fail to comply with a lawfully given order.

I am thinking alot of the G20 charges are just reactionary. People can and do get caught up in sweeping and "preventative arrests". The only reason why their being charged with "anything" is to keep them in detention.

If they don't charge you (this still exists) than they have to let you go after a certain period of time. Doing this means they won't net anything from alot of people despite the political pressure to do so. They find whatever they can to hold you and leave it to the courts.

Its like the whole "throw s**t on the wall and see what sticks" Idea that happens with any "less than pleasant" encounter involving LE

Most of the minor incidents will just wind up with fines or have charges dropped (or turned over on appeal) like this case. Once the courts start getting overwhelmed with the huge number of charges being laid expect alot of these minor things to be one shots never to be heard from again.

The others that actually did something, well they will get their time in court.

Most judges are not as "prosecution happy" as the police are. Even though the police can arrest on "suspicion"

Of course it wasn't. Assault by a deadly bubble is a very serious crime.

Considering that they weren't arrested for "bubbles" that's a good one. Personally I'm still surprised that people pay attention to the news media in Canada with their ability to distort even simple court cases into something that I wouldn't even know I was at, if I hadn't been sitting in that court.

I think Mashiki, we all have problems with how the courts have determined rulings in the past. All I have asked you for is source and proof of your statements regarding said laws and rulings. As it stands, you still haven't posted source for your statement, or case law, so in my opinion, all your statments are indeed opinion.

Doesn't matter what she was doing, she was told to stop. If she was blowing them toward the cops was it to, as she said, "keep the mood of the crowd light", or was she trying to be a pest to the cops. The story said "The 20-year-old was a volunteer street medic at the G20and said she “wasn’t even protesting.”" If that's the case why was she up front in the crowd getting herself noticed? I also like how the video is edited so you don't see what happened before the arrest.

People complain about the policing costs of these summits but there wouldn't be these high cost if it wasn't for terrorists, shit-disturbing protesters and nut jobs.

Actually, they can't. They need to have reasonable and probable grounds that you committed a crime, not merely that they "think" you did it. These so-called arrests for people who they believed were "potentially" going to commit a crime will be interesting to watch go through the courts, as (if my member serves) there have been cases that have ruled for and against such actions, but under differing circumstances. Case law is also against the police with regards to the random searches, and it's going to be very interesting to see how this proceeds through the courts as nothing quite like this has ever happened in Canada before.

With that said, even if charges are dropped, someone could launch a charter challenge against the police for unlawful detainment and force them to produce those probable grounds. If they can't, it's a charter violation and the police can be forced to produce a remedy, not to mention the possibility of civil liability.

I think the bigger issue here is that she had a good rapport and on good terms with one officer, while another was a total shit. The young woman officer even looked totally shocked by what that cop with a chip on his shoulder was doing. This shows a breakdown in communication and chain of command, which is the last thing you want in a situation like this.

On that same topic, the whole reason people were kettled on Queen in the rain was due to a severe breakdown in communication. Cheif Blair ended up driving to the ISU command in Barrie (why was it in Barrie?!) and caused a major shitstorm to get the protesters released and have the charges dropped against those who were already arrested. If you think it's bad right now on the public front, just think of the shit that's going on internally between the RCMP, OPP and Toronto Police Service.

More info on the event, and more info on "officer Bubbles":

Toronto's 'Officer Bubbles' gains web notoriety
»www.thestar.com/news/gta ··· ety?bn=1

[...]

“Officer Bubbles” was also the subject of a handful of blogs and Facebook groups reporting that his Facebook profile made a derogatory statement about the public he serves as a Toronto police officer.

As of Friday morning, Josephs' Facebook profile had been made private.

Insp. Anil Anand with the Toronto police public information unit said Friday he had heard rumours about offensive comments in the officer's personal profile, but said he is not aware of a formal complaint being filed.

heh, officer Bubbles didn't know he could set his FB profile to private it appears

From what I read around on blogs, at the protest in Toronto today about 75 people started blowing bubbles in protest. heh.

An Ontario bubble tax is next.

What did the good officer Bubbles say on facebook? See it here:
»lawiscool.com/2010/07/17 ··· bubbles/

Considering politicians and the police are equally as good at distorting the truth of all kinds of situations this really should not be surprising at all.

I love the part on his facebook where he refers to the residents of Toronto as "human garbage". Yet another reason for more inquiries into police attitudes in general, and how these people get hired with attitudes like that towards society in the first place.

Notice how he starts to breath heavy and working himself up. I'm sure this guy is going to have discipline issues in the future.

He was right that it was feasible, yet remote, that they could get soap in their eye I suppose.

A cop can request you do something and you can tell them to f-off. They can order you to do anything they want as well.

In the end it is up to them whether they want to arrest you for refusing to obey that order thus opening them to civil litigation.

Of course the courts will sort it out later but they have effectively dispensed their own justice as I'm sure you would resist arrest.
At least that's what the incident report will state to explain your injuries. It's a no win without video and a good lawyer.

That's always the problem, your word against theirs.

I once had two officers with attitude show up at my door and complain to me about something and made threats about charges. We asked them for the duty sergeant's name so that we could make a complaint about their conduct. When they said "I doubt that'll fly" we told them, quite literally, to fuck off and slammed the door in their face. They sat in the driveway for about a half an hour and then left.

Two hours a sergeant showed up. He was calm and polite and apologized for what happened. He had some questions, and because his attitude was that of a respectable adult rather than a spoiled child we politely answered the questions, he thanked us and that was the end of it. We ended up seeing him in street clothes at a cafe downtown a few weeks later. He made a point of saying hello and we chatted for a bit.

A lot of times the outcome of a situation is just as much in the hands of the officer as it is the person they're interacting with. This video is a perfect example of that.

The look on the women officer's face when the guy starts going off is priceless.