Time.news – The gesture may not be civil or polite, but “it’s not a crime” and is protected by the Canadian constitution, says a judge’s ruling on February 24, writes the Guardian. So, raise the “medium said” towards a person could perhaps be disrespectful but nothing more.
This was established by Judge Dennis Galiatsatos of the French-speaking province of Quebec which dismissed in a 26-page judgment a case against a man accused of molesting his neighbor in a Montreal suburb.
“To be blunt, it’s not a crime to point the finger at someone”, we read, and if we really want to say it all, “it is a right enshrined in God and in the Constitution that belongs to every Canadian”, remarked Judge Dennis Galiatsatos.
The defendant, Neall Epstein, a teacher father of two, was arrested by police in May 2021 for threatening his neighbor in Beaconsfield, Quebec, but the judge did not recognize the details to trigger “criminal responsibilities” instead declassifying the gesture to a behavior that is not exactly “gentlemanly”.