Current Events > Woman arrested for not holding escalator handrail to be heard by Supreme Court

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https://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/canada/woman-arrested-for-not-holding-escalator-handrail-to-be-heard-by-supreme-court-1.4179468

OTTAWA -- The Supreme Court of Canada agreed Thursday to hear the case of a woman who was ticketed and arrested after she refused instructions to hold onto an escalator handrail.

Bela Kosoian was in a subway station in the Montreal suburb of Laval in 2009 when a police officer told her to respect a pictogram with the instruction, "hold the handrail."

She replied that she did not consider the image, which also featured the word "Careful," to be an obligation. She refused to hold the handrail, and tensions mounted after she also refused to identity herself.

She was "taken by force" by the officer and another who had arrived as backup, according to court documents.

The officers detained Kosoian for about 30 minutes before letting her go with two tickets -- one for $100 for disobeying a pictogram and another for $320 for having obstructed the work of an inspector.

She was acquitted of the two infractions in Montreal municipal court in 2012 and subsequently filed a $45,000 lawsuit against the Montreal Transit Corp., the City of Laval and one of the officers, Fabio Camacho.

Her suit was rejected by Quebec court in 2015 and by the Quebec Court of Appeal in 2017, which said Kosoian was the "author of her own misfortune."

It will now be up to the country's high court to settle the matter.

"This is excellent news," said Kosoian's lawyer, Aymar Missakila. He said the Court of Appeal ruling created a dangerous precedent.

"A police officer who has a sincere but false belief that a law exists and decides to punish a party on the basis of this law could be exonerated of all responsibility .... It goes squarely against important principles of law," he said.

In the Court of Appeal decision, Justice Julie Dutil wrote that the officer "had reasonable grounds to believe that an infraction had been committed," which justified his decision to fine Kosoian and arrest her "because she had refused to identify herself."

In a dissenting opinion, Justice Mark Schrager wrote that the officer's "honest but false belief" she had committed an infraction was not enough to clear him of responsibility.

He concluded the pictogram was "a warning," and someone who saw it was under no "obligation to hold the handrail at risk of receiving a fine."

Neither the Montreal Transit Corp. nor the City of Laval was immediately available to comment on the Supreme Court's decision to hear the case.

@Doom_Art
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Ah yes I've been following this case for a long time now

for real though wtf quebec
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Just hold on to the damn rail, woman
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Give her the chair. Despicable behavior.

I get that there's a bigger picture here, but this has basically consumed a decade of this woman's life just because she was acting like a toddler
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Fuck the sign!
Fuck the police!
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Stupid bitch didn't ID herself to cops
throw the fucking book at her

eston posted...

I get that there's a bigger picture here, but this has basically consumed a decade of this woman's life just because she was acting like a toddler

Ah yes, wanting to hold police accountable when they overstep their boundaries is acting like a toddler
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Alpha218 posted...

eston posted...

I get that there's a bigger picture here, but this has basically consumed a decade of this woman's life just because she was acting like a toddler

Ah yes, wanting to hold police accountable when they overstep their boundaries is acting like a toddler

I was referring to her refusal to hold the handrail
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eston posted...

Alpha218 posted...

eston posted...

I get that there's a bigger picture here, but this has basically consumed a decade of this woman's life just because she was acting like a toddler

Ah yes, wanting to hold police accountable when they overstep their boundaries is acting like a toddler

I was referring to her refusal to hold the handrail

So was he.
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I don't think so Tim
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Doom_Art posted...

Ah yes I've been following this case for a long time now

for real though wtf quebec

You realize in the united states she would have been shot to death, right?

You don't disobey a cop. Ever. Your pride is not worth your life.
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if you dont hold the handrail you could trip and and on a mother holding her newborn baby knocking her down causing her to crush her baby with her body weight killing an infant

i mean i know thats an unlikely scenario but thats a good enough reason to just hold onto the fucking handrail
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Okay? Idk why that matters, even if its true. The law doesnt compel you to hold onto the guardrail. Thus, the police response to this is majorly overblown and they should be held accountable. Why the fuck would someone need to show ID for not holding an escalator guardrail anyways??

Wheres the handrail when youre walking? You could trip into a woman holding her newborn causing her to drop it. At least when youre riding an escalator youre standing still.
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Alpha218 posted...

Wheres the handrail when youre walking? You could trip into a woman holding her newborn causing her to drop it. At least when youre riding an escalator youre standing still.

good point
we need handrails on sidewalks
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Pourquoi
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Alpha218 posted...

Okay? Idk why that matters, even if its true. The law doesnt compel you to hold onto the guardrail. Thus, the police response to this is majorly overblown and they should be held accountable. Why the fuck would someone need to show ID for not holding an escalator guardrail anyways??

Wheres the handrail when youre walking? You could trip into a woman holding her newborn causing her to drop it. At least when youre riding an escalator youre standing still.

This is Quebec.

You can get arrested here for not holding a newborn's head when breastfeeding him.
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Handrail needed a gun
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I weep for amputees in Quebec...
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Only in America.
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I hope she wins

Blue_Dream87 posted...

I weep for amputees in Quebec...

If you're missing an arm, you can hold on to the guardrail with your feet.

That's the rule established in the leading case of Pain Dor v. Croissant in the Superior Court of Quebec, July 14, 1998
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Are people seriously defending this cop lmao wtf Canada usually you are the voice of reason
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MorbidFaithless posted...

Are people seriously defending this cop lmao wtf Canada usually you are the voice of reason

lol

02fran posted...

MorbidFaithless posted...

Are people seriously defending this cop lmao wtf Canada usually you are the voice of reason

lol

Canada as a whole usually is, but this is about Quebec. Basically, take Florida and triple it, then you're getting close to Quebecs stupidity.
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Hope she wins, fuck the police. They're in the wrong here.
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