I just read this article, which is a really bizarre tale of the above busker’s arrest in Kenora.
Kenora’s municipal prosecutor withdrew charges Thursday against a banjo-playing busker who had a run-in with angry residents as well as the police after arriving in Kenora this past July. Nick Gallien was given a ticket on July 7 after an OPP officer said he was panhandling in front of the CIBC branch on Main Street, and by doing so, had violated a provincial law banning begging for money in front of ATM machines.
Gallien vehemently denied the charge, saying he had been busking in front of Hojoe’s Coffee and Books the entire time and it was he who called police because residents in the apartments above the coffee shop had been throwing things at him. The musician challenged the ticket, and in a Kenora court on Thursday, Dec. 4, the municipal prosecutor’s office unceremoniously withdrew the charge.
“I don’t think the charge should have ever been laid. In my view, clear (Gallien) was not violating the law. They said he was near an ATM machine, but you could be anywhere on Main Street and be near an ATM machine because of the banks. At any rate, you need to be begging or soliciting people using ATM machines,” said Gallien’s lawyer, Peter Kirby.
“This case raises some issues not only about basic freedoms, but also about policing. Are they trying to discourage people from street busking? We call ourselves a tourist town after all.”
Earlier this year, Gallien was playing his banjo outside of Hojo’s on Main Street on July 7 when residents of the apartments above the coffee shop began throwing things at him to make him stop playing, causing Gallien to call the police. Officers were unable to find who had been throwing things from the apartments and told Gallien to move elsewhere, causing a heated argument between the officer and the musician.
Gallien said after his first encounter with police he went to city hall and found out Kenora has no bylaws regulating when and where someone can busk within the city. He then went to see Mort Goss about the issue. Goss was at the time the president of the Habourtown BIZ.
Goss decided to pay Gallien on behalf of the BIZ to go and perform on Main Street. So Gallien returned to his spot in front of Hojo’s and the apartment residents renewed their efforts to make him leave by throwing objects such as condoms full of urine at him.
“The people upstairs called the cops on me again … Then another cop came and wrote me a ticket for panhandling outside of a CIBC. (He said) I was asking people for money, but I was busking all day just playing my banjo, doing my thing and trying to make money so I can leave town,” said Gallien after the incident.
A Kenora Daily Miner and News reporter showed the busker’s picture to employees at CIBC and asked if they had seen him panhandling or playing in front of the bank’s ATM machines. No one had. Kirby said the officer was pushing it when he issued the ticket.
“The larger issues are what acts are going to be policed and what freedoms we’re going to allow buskers,” said Kirby, “or other performers that come to town. That’s the kind of discussion this case should create.”
Kinda reminds me of this game: