A Canadian judge recently ruled that giving someone the middle finger is considered free speech under the country’s constitution after a man was accused of harassing his neighbor.
After a 26-page decision, Judge Dennis Galiasatos dismissed the case involving a man accused of persistently harassing his neighbor in Montreal. Neall Epstein was arrested in May 2021 in Beaconsfield, Quebec, for making death threats and criminal harassment against his neighbor, Michael Naccahce. According to Galiasatos, the complaints from Naccahce were “nothing more than mundane, petty neighborhood trivialities,” as reported by The Guardian.
“To be abundantly clear, it is not a crime to give someone the finger. Flipping the proverbial bird is a God-given, charter-enshrined right that belongs to every red-blooded Canadian. It is deplorable that the complainants have weaponised the criminal justice system in an attempt to exert revenge on an innocent man for some perceived slights that are, at best, trivial peeves.”
Epstein was also accused of assaulting Naccache’s parents in March 2021, but the claims were dismissed. However, he also said his neighbor held a handheld drill and said, “You f*cking crazy neighbor; you dipsh*t, you’re f*cking dead.” Epstein told him to “f*ck off” and gave Naccache the middle finger as he walked away from the scene.
“The complainant went to great lengths to convince the Court that in the footage, Mr. Epstein was in fact filming him. To bolster his claims, he took ultra-zoomed screen shots from the video showing… basically nothing. They merely show what is patently clear: a guy walking up the street, sometimes with his kids, holding his phone in his hand. They do not show a 007-esque effort to film the complainant’s home. Yet, Mr. Naccache is persuaded that Epstein carefully placed his hands by his hips, deceptively slanting his phone camera and cunningly filming [nothing of interest] while still walking.”
Court documents stated CCTV footage showed “that Epstein is looking in the complainant’s direction and giving him the finger, sometimes with both hands.” After the confrontation, police arrived at Epstein’s home hours later and arrested him for the death threats. Galiatsatos felt the hand gesture was not a legitimate reason to call 911.
“The complainants are free to clutch their pearls in the face of such an insult. However, the police department and the 911 dispatching service have more important priorities to address. The middle finger gesture may not be civil, it may not be polite, it may not be gentlemanly … Nevertheless, it does not trigger criminal liability.
The Court accepts Mr. Epstein’s account as truthful. I believe his account of the events of March 25th and May 18th. I also believe his description of the statements made by Frank, Ari and Martine Naccache. They are consistent with their behaviour and their driving patterns in the video evidence, which show a disregard for the individuals on the street and a spiteful attitude of “you move, I’m driving!”.
