More noise fines handed out to pro-Palestinian demonstrators

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators are expressing their dissatisfaction after the city's bylaw department issued nine tickets for noise-related violations at a protest in downtown Ottawa over the weekend.

The citations come just a week after three tickets, worth $490 each, were issued on Dec. 23 at another march organized in support of Palestinians.

Sarah Abdul-Karim, a member of the Ottawa chapter of the Palestinian Youth Movement, said the tickets are a frustrating distraction, taking attention away from their message.

She said they represent an attempt to silence protesters.

"We want our protests to be focused on our people back home, who are suffering and dying," she said over Zoom on Monday. "We want it to be focused on our government's inaction and not so much on these bylaw tickets."

Her organization and others have regularly gathered in huge crowds downtown since the Israel-Hamas war began.

Sound amplification devices the issue, city says

After the first three tickets were issued, Roger Chapman, the city's director of bylaw and regulatory services, said enforcement at demonstrations is a result of "escalated actions by the participants, which may pose nuisance and public safety issues."

For its part, the city says it respects the right to peacefully demonstrate.

But in an emailed statement following the most recent round of tickets, Chapman said bylaw officers — who have been working with organizers to educate them about what is and isn't permissible — followed a progressive enforcement model.

"As the activities of protests escalated and became more frequent, including the defacement of property, the use of sound reproduction devices, smoke bombs, fireworks, and threats towards our officers, [By-law and Regulatory Services] took action to address these concerns," he said.

Warnings were issued at first regarding the use of sound amplification devices, Chapman said, with nine tickets following.

The city also clarified that all the tickets issued at both demonstrations have been for the operation of sound reproduction devices on a highway or public place, and not for any of the other acts mentioned in Chapman's statement.

Pro-Palestinian protesters dressed as Santa during a demonstration in Ottawa on Dec. 23, 2023. (Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press)

Councillor calls ticketing 'absurd'

Abdul-Karim said people have used smoke bombs during their past demonstrations, but after police alerted organizers that people would be ticketed, they were asked to stop.

She said the group has used the same sound system at its various gatherings, adding they've used even more speakers without issue at past protests.

"It seems like bylaw is very much picking and choosing where to apply this bylaw that they're claiming to ticket us with," she said.

In a statement on social media, Somerset Ward Coun. Ariel Troster called ticketing people for using a megaphone at a protest "absurd."

"I have no power to direct the work of bylaw, but I can state publicly when I think that something seems off or inappropriate," she told CBC.

MPP ticketed

Ottawa Centre MPP Joel Harden, who was one of the demonstrators ticketed after bringing a megaphone to the event on Dec. 30, said the enforcement sends the wrong message.

He describes the mood of Saturday's protest as one of profound sadness and anguish. He said he didn't notice a substantial change in the volume level.

"But what I have seen recently, is an infringement upon what I believe to be constitutionally protected speech," he said.

"We have to have a space in our city to make sure that people who are grieving, who are profoundly sad, can impact the policies of their government."

But Harden says, despite the frustration over the fines, a great amount of dialogue has happened between the protesters and bylaw services in the background.

"It's not as if it's so polarized and so contentious that people aren't talking to each other," he said.