London, Ont., doctor criticizes police after charges withdrawn over MP office protest
· Toronto Sun
A London doctor and activist whose mischief charge was dropped says the London police are “bullies” for charging him for protesting.
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On his X social media account, Tarek Loubani, who is in Gaza in the Middle East as part of a humanitarian effort, made the comment as an introduction to a statement released by his lawyer and the lawyer for Western University associate professor David Heap. Both Loubani and Heap were charged after the office of London Centre MP Peter Fragiskatos was sprayed with ketchup.
“Protesting with ketchup is still not criminal in Canada and London police are bullies,” Loubani wrote.
The doctor, who is also a Western University associate professor, also made a pointed remark about the Crown for taking 16 months to withdraw the mischief under $5,000 charge. Last Wednesday, the Crown told a judge that there was “no reasonable prospect for conviction” and withdrew the charges against both men.
The charges stemmed from a pop-up protest outside Fragiskatos’s office just hours after a similar charge was withdrawn by the Crown against Loubani on Nov. 12, 2024, involving a similar act of ketchup protest outside the Liberal MP’s office in October 2023.
Loubani and a small group gathered outside the Hyman Street office a couple hours after Loubani was in court to hear that the charge was dropped. Loubani was filmed and photographed spraying the condiment on the exterior wall of the MP’s office.
The statement – posted online Friday from Loubani’s defence lawyers, Riaz Sayani and Arash Ghassi, and Heap’s defence lawyer, Jenny Prosser – noted the Crown’s withdrawal of the mischief charges and that the sprayed ketchup “caused no damage and was washed away within minutes.
“This was not criminal conduct. Protesting is one of the cornerstones of our democracy. There is a rich tradition in Canada of protestors using disruptive art to make a point,” they wrote. “To criminalize such conduct would impair everyone’s Charter-protected freedom of expression.”
The lawyers wrote that their clients were ready to go to trial if the charges hadn’t been withdrawn. The trial was expected to begin in two months. They said their clients had been “vindicated.”
“The London police must learn from this decision. To criminally charge in these circumstances is legally wrong and a waste of valuable court resources,” they wrote.
They also suggested that police across Canada have been “overcharging Palestine protestors.”
Both Loubani and Heap included statements defending their right to political free expression and their support for the Palestinian cause.
London police Chief Thai Truong released a statement in response to the lawyers’ post affirming the police service’s respect for “the independence of the Crown Attorney’s Office and its decision in this matter.”
He wrote that the police and the Crown “apply different legal thresholds” to investigations. “Police assess whether there are reasonable grounds to believe an offence has been committed. The Crown then makes its own independent determination about reasonable prospect of conviction and public interest.
“In this case, our officers reviewed the evidence, applied the law and acted appropriately based on the information before them at the time,” he wrote.
He added that the police “fully supports the right of people to protest peacefully and to express their views freely. That is a fundamental part of our democracy.”
Truong said the actions of the police “were not about the message being expressed or the identity of those involved. They were about our duty to assess conduct and evidence fairly, impartially and without bias.”
While Loubani’s criminal case is over, Heap remains before the court in connection with a protest at RBC Place in October at the Best Defence Conference. Heap was charged with obstructing a peace officer and his next court appearance is next month. Three women also face charges.
-With files from Free Press reporter Dale Carruthers