OTTAWA — A police officer stepped over the line when he detained a Quebec woman for refusing to hold onto an escalator handrail, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled Friday while also slamming Montreal’s transit authority. In its unanimous ruling, the court found Bela Kosoian was within her rights when she refused to obey an unlawful order, and that a reasonable police officer would not have considered refusing to abide by a caution-notice pictogram on the escalator to be an offence. The Societe de transport de Montreal “for its part, committed a fault by teaching police officers that the pictogram in question imposed an obligation to hold the handrail,” adds the ruling, written by Justice Suzanne Cote. Kosoian is entitled to a total of $20,000 in damages from Const. Fabio Camacho, the City of Laval as Camacho’s employer, and the STM, the court ruled.

Source: Huffington Post November 29, 2019 17:03 UTC