Giving the middle finger is a fundamental right, because “it’s part of freedom of expression” even if it’s not “polite”, recently concluded a Quebec judge in a neighborhood dispute case.
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A decision that echoes the outcry that followed in France, the arms of honor of the Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti Tuesday in the hemicycle of the National Assembly.
In a judgment of about thirty pages, dated February 24, a judge of the Court of Quebec arbitrated in favor of a man accused of having harassed and threatened his neighbor with whom he has a conflictual relationship.
The accused, Neall Epstein, a teacher and father of two, was arrested by police in May 2021 for threatening and flipping the middle fingers at his neighbor in a suburban town of Montreal. .
“It’s not a crime to give someone the middle finger,” the judge said in his ruling.
According to the judge, “offending someone is not a crime. This is part of freedom of expression”, which is “a fundamental right enshrined in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which belongs to all Canadians”.
“Maybe it’s not civil, maybe it’s not polite, maybe it’s not befitting a gentleman. Nevertheless, this does not entail criminal liability,” he said.