We’ve all had those moments when we look across the room at our domestic partner and wonder, is my partner just a hot dog in a trench coat? But few of us have probably ever experienced an actual stack of children, in a trench coat, attempting to purchase some adult-fun beverages from us. Until now.
Yes, it appears that one lucky individual was faced with two children pulling the age-old “two kids stacked on top of each other in a trench coat” prank, in an attempt to purchase liquor. Suffice it to say, it failed miserably. Which is a shame. If the penalties for liquor sales to minors in British Columbia were not $575 fines for individuals and fines of up to $10,000 for businesses, I might advocate for an exception. File it under the “A for Effort” defence.
Don’t bother destroying the breath test instrument. One York region man found this out the hard way, and is now facing charges for impaired driving, refusal to provide a sample, and mischief over $5000. And if you think that it is that unusual, I have already defended cases involving similar circumstances. There is a reason police are trained not to let the driver hold the breath tube or approved screening device while they are blowing.
What gets me about this Canadian impaired driving case is the charge of mischief over $5000. The details released by police are relatively scant, so we don’t know just how the driver destroyed the instrument. However, I do know that a brand new Intox EC/IR II device does not cost $5000. So whatever happened here must have involved some more destruction – like maybe the gas standard or the printer, lest the police be overvaluing a fuel cell inside a gigantic and mostly empty box.
Then don’t even get me started on Russia. Sure, I could post a Weird and Wacky Wednesday blog post featuring a strange Russian driving case every week. But I try to diversify here. Russia also has some really strange laws, and applies them in strange and oppressive ways.
In reality, this case about a Russian feminist blogger is not that funny. A woman, named Lyubov Kalugina, has been charged in Russia for inciting hatred against men and posting hate speech about men. The reason? She posted funny feminist memes. And while even in Canada the right to free expression in subject to reasonable limitations, one would think that posting a few memes and making light of the fact that men have it easier when compared to women (oh god, I’m going to get dick pics now…) shouldn’t have a person facing a jail sentence.
So, I suppose the moral here is #freelyubov
