Did Kamloops bylaw officers go too far?

Tim Petruk - Kamloops This Week Published: October 14, 2010 3:00 PM 
Were city bylaw officers out of line when they slapped a Kamloops woman with a $500 fine for littering following an argument with municipal officials?  That's what B.C. Supreme Court Justice Hope Hyslop will have to decide following an appeal hearing in her courtroom on Tuesday, Oct. 12.  Court heard Charlotte Shaw went to the city bylaw office on Jan. 20 to retrieve one of her son's two longboards, both of which had been seized after he couldn't come up with a $100 fine for illegal skateboarding months earlier.  One of the boards was broken and one was in good condition. Shaw only wanted the usable skateboard returned and was prepared to pay the $25 skateboard-redemption fee. The two boards, however, had been "Saran-wrapped" together, according to lawyer John Drayton, and had been marked with a note reading: "It's both or none."  Unwilling to pay $50 for the boards — one of which was unusable — Shaw got into an argument first with the clerk working the desk at the Mission Flats office, and then with city bylaws supervisor Brian Cassell. "At the end of the day, she relents and she pays $50 and redeems these two boards," Drayton said in court. "One of them was useless. It was, in fact trash, and it was forcibly sold to Ms. Shaw."Shaw then went outside and, as Drayton explaind, "planted" the broken skateboard "into the landscaping."

A few days later, she was served with a $500 littering ticket — an amount Drayton said is exceedingly high.  Court heard the ticket's original amount was $100, but someone — presumably a bylaw officer — wrote the $500 amount over top of that.  On top of that, Drayton said, the bylaw section cited on the ticket was for the wrong offence — litter being cast upon a highway.  Hyslop heard Shaw's actions were not littering, but a form of protest akin to someone setting up a picket sign or putting up election advertising.  "You don't find the Saran wrap there, because the Saran wrap wasn't cast to the ground like litter," Drayton said.  "But you do find the skateboard, because the skateboard was planted there." Shaw took the $500 ticket to bylaw court, where it was upheld.She is now in B.C. Supreme Court trying to get the fine reduced to $25 — the cost of redeeming one impounded skateboard — and seeking $500 for legal fees.Hyslop has reserved her decision for a later date.