A 70yr old grandfather was charged with mischief and police obstruction, Feb 12th, 2022, when assumed to be the owner of a child’s red wagon carrying jerry cans thought to contain gasoline destined for convoy vehicles.

Is it an offence to own these items? Or provide gasoline to vehicles in a protest? Was the protest itself illegal? In every case, no. Yet decision makers arbitrarily decided otherwise, saying it warranted a charge of mischief. And when officers saw the wagon of jerry cans “within 10 feet” of Allen Remley’s truck, he was charged.

In court the frivolous nature of the case became clear. Justice Perkins-McVey pointed to the Crown basing their case on the “inference that there was gas in the jerry cans”, that the constable providing evidence “could not say that he saw Mr. Remley fill a jerry can,” or that they had ever been in his possession, unable to recall even seeing Remley hold one.

She concluded, “Based on the evidence before me, the best we have is jerry cans in a wagon 10 feet away with dozens of people milling about. It is not enough…”. The Crown had failed to prove their case; Remley was acquitted.

But wait, they aren’t done yet; the Crown has filed an appeal. With weak notes and conjecture, relying solely on the convoy’s “impact on Ottawa” to give teeth to their case.

Among the several reasons listed, the Crown felt the EA should be taken into consideration to ‘demonstrate the severity of the situation’, despite it not being invoked at the time of the offence.

Karahalios said the “time and money put into prosecuting this grandfather is shocking, considering the criminal justice system has gone the other way with more serious violent crimes…”, and doesn’t see why they would bother except to say that in public opinion, people are guilty for just having been there.

It’s an egregious waste of taxpayer money and ties up our courts, just to make an example of a 70yr old man trying to do right by his grandchildren. This appeal should not proceed. They know it and so did Justice Perkins-McVey. We hope the appeals court will also have the ability to see past the politics and realize it too.