Louizandre Dauphin says he was just looking for a quiet place to spend a few hours reading when he parked his car near a wharf in northeastern New Brunswick.
Dauphin was pulled over on the weekend by RCMP on his way home from Stonehaven wharf in Bathurst, N.B. Police told him they’d received several calls about a “suspicious” black man parked at the wharf.
Turns out Dauphin, who is the director of parks, recreation and tourism for the city, was reading an anthology by C.S. Lewis, author of the Narnia series, in his car.
“I came down to the wharf just to do some reading and just to spend some nice quiet time by the wharf,” he told CBC.
Take that in for a second. The director of tourism was reading a book of Christian fables in his car at the wharf in the middle of the day and several people called the cops about it.
To his credit, Dauphin was remarkably chill (or maybe depressingly resigned) about the incident, expressing his disappointment, but not anger, at the residents who called to report him.
“I’d imagine it was largely due to their suspicions of someone who is not common in the area and they might have had some preconceived notions,” he said.
Agencies/Canadajournal