Hells Angels around the world rally to downrank Manitoba businesses that don't serve outlaw bikers

Yep. It’s really not that far removed from telling companies you’ll boycott them if they advertise on a particular show.

I think the thing which potentially pushes this over into criminal harassment territory is the bit where they encourage everyone to contact the business (via Facebook, etc.) to tell them their business sucks.

That would seem to be just about covered (with some pulling and straining admittedly) by s. 264 (2) (b) of the Canada Criminal Code:

(b) repeatedly communicating with, either directly or indirectly, the other person or anyone known to them

In other words telling all Hells Angels not to go the hotel and that it sucks and that they should tell everyone they know about it - legal.

Getting them all to contact the hotel and say “You suck”, not. Maybe. It’s pretty thin, isn’t it.

Although as it turns out this is another instance where Cory’s summary does not really reflect the article’s contents in all particulars…

The linked article does not contain any police officer saying specifically that this could be criminal harassment.

It does contain this:

The OPP’s Renton said while boycotting a business online may not be a crime, the reviews themselves can be.

“If they feel there are actions within those reviews that are criminal in nature, you know, whether they feel they are threatened or intimidated they can always contact the police.”

which is rather more general and pretty much what you’d expect the police to say :slight_smile:

4 Likes

Fair enough! That summary probably shows why it is likely not criminal harassment, because 264 (1)spells out the bar that behaviour has to cross to be criminal harassment: it must cause the target “reasonably, in all the circumstances, to fear for their safety or the safety of anyone known to them.”

It’s not easy to prove criminal harassment in Canada and cases can fall apart based on the fact that the victim of harassment wasn’t actually scared.

On the other hand, perhaps a person could make the case that when it’s the Hell’s Angels doing the calling, it takes on a sinister tone that would cause a reasonable person to fear for their safety. Rightly or wrongly it’s probably a lot easier to make a criminal harassment case against a biker gang than against another organization. (Plus odds are at least one of those callers went farther than complaining and made a threat or something)

2 Likes

For a while, where I live the Honda CRX, an automobile from the 1980’s, had a similar rep as a gang member car. (this was later, when the CRX was a long out of production vehicle; they were sporty and easy to modify, but if you drove one you might expect tapping on the windows at stop lights :slight_smile: )

1 Like

This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.