Arms of honor in France are like cotton wool in Quebec: this kind of impertinence, in the formal and padded decor of a parliament, does not pass.
Three times on Tuesday, the French Minister of Justice, Éric Dupond-Moretti, made the arms of honor in the middle of the National Assembly. Since then, France has been choking with indignation. Thursday, the deputy Marine Le Pen went so far as to demand the resignation of this minister who is “retreating the France of good manners”.
Ah, if only Mr. Dupond-Moretti lived with his fiancée, Isabelle Boulay, in his cabin in Canada. He would be quiet. In this country, ladies and gentlemen, giving the middle finger is… a God-given right.
A God-given rightaccording to the original English version of an epic February 24 decision by Dennis Galiatsatos1. The judge of the Court of Quebec had to settle a dispute between neighbors in Beaconsfield.
In Canada, raising the middle finger is a fundamental right guaranteed by the Charter, said the judge. “It may not be courteous, he admits in his decision. But it does not engage criminal liability. Offending someone is not a crime. This is an integral part of freedom of expression. »
It seems obvious to me. To quote Ira P. Robbins, professor of criminal law at the American University in Washington, “the arm of justice should not extend to the middle finger.”
You will tell me that there is still a difference between a parliament, which requires a certain decorum from elected officials, and an anonymous street in Beaconsfield. You will, of course, be absolutely right.
Nevertheless. This quibble between neighbours, banal at first sight, is a thousand times more scandalous than the gesture of the French minister. Reported Thursday by Gabriel Béland2, this is a revolting affair from many points of view. And I’m not talking about the middle finger which was well deserved.
This case should never have ended up in court. This man, Neall Epstein, should never have been arrested by the police, let alone criminally charged with harassment and threats.
Because the victim was him.
Dennis Galiatsatos was so outraged while writing his judgment that he wanted to throw everything out the window. “Alas, the courtrooms of the Montreal courthouse have no windows,” he wrote.
The judge therefore resigned himself to writing his decision – not without repressing a furious urge to write it down, to mark his wrath, in capital letters and in bold type.
He first set the scene. A sunny day in spring 2021. The snow is melting, people are coming out, happy to be together after confinement. In a quiet street in a residential area, children are playing under the watchful eye of their parents. Some took out their bikes. Others sketch the pavement with chalk.
Everyone smiles. Everyone is happy. Everyone, except the members of the Naccache family, for whom this suburban utopia is a real affront. These children playing in the street, an “unbearable nuisance”.
Michael Naccache, his brother and his parents pose cameras everywhere. They drive without slowing down the small street – not even when the children approach. On the contrary, they brush past them in the car! “I’ll hit them, next time!” “, one day spits the father, Frank Naccache, to disconcerted parents.
Inexplicably, scandalously, this family succeeded in convincing the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP) to bring charges against Neall Epstein, an innocent man who worries – with good reason! – for the safety of her two little girls aged 2 and 4.
For two years, Mr. Epstein will live with this sword of Damocles hanging over his head. Criminal charges, brought in the name of a family as warlike as they are paranoid. On February 24, 2023, Judge Galiatsatos will finally put an end to this injustice. He will acquit the father of the family.
Yes, Neall Epstein did indeed exercise his fundamental right to give Michael Naccache the middle finger, one day in May 2021 when he began to insult him in the middle of the street.
He did it because he was pushed over the edge. “Being told: ‘Fuck you’ should not encourage you to call 911”, writes however the judge Galiatsatos. We feel that the magistrate refrains from adding: especially when we have sought it out at this point.
Really, the exasperated judge seems…close to writing it. In capitals and in bold type.