Read: Canadians Don’t Love Stephen Harper’s Baby Bursary, Poll Finds
He’s not a man of subtleties, and recently Albertan Rob Wells outfitted his car with a bold message: “Fuck Harper.”
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The all-caps, hot-pink-and-black sign, placed in the back window of Wells’ hatchback, attracted plenty of attention—including that of Alberta RCMP, who pulled him over Sunday just south of the city of Leduc and handed him a $543 fine for distraction, according to CTV News.
“Harper supporters are very offensive to me, so being offensive is not illegal in this country,” Wells told CTV.
Claiming he’d cleared the sign with lawyers before displaying it, he took to Facebook to vent about the run-in.
“When I refused to let [the officer] trample on my Charter rights,”—the Canadian equivalent of the US Constitution—”he gave me a ticket. I’ll be pleading NOT GUILTY and raising a Charter right defense,” Wells wrote. “I’ll also be filing a complaint against the officer for political harassment.”
This isn’t the first time dissing the prime minister has gotten Wells in trouble with the law; he claims he was previously threatened with “criminal prosecution” due to an anti-Harper bumper sticker.
The distraction law is a traffic violation, not a criminal offense. It was used in May to charge a man who screamed “Fuck her right in the pussy” at a CBC News reporter in Calgary.
Follow Manisha Krishnan on Twitter.
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