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Watch your language in the small Alberta town of Taber, where the council has passed a bylaw that outlaws swearing in public.
The first offence would cost $150, while a second offence could set you back $250 — and that goes for yelling or screaming in public as well.
The part that some say infringes upon charter-rights reads, “no person shall be a member of the assembly of three or more persons in any public place where a Peace Officer has reasonable grounds to believe the assembly will disturb the peace…”
It’s been said by some legal experts that this section contravenes the right to free assembly.
It may sound heavy handed, but according to Taber police chief Al Rudd, Taber isn’t the first community to adopt such bylaws.
“When we got to amalgamating things under our community standards bylaw, we did some research through the province just to see what other communities were up to, what they were doing, and we found a couple sections in there we thought inereting and we could use them as enforcement tools here in Taber so we incorporated them into the bylaws.”
Jasper adopted a similar set of bylaws in 2005, and Calgary transit officers have the ability to hand out tickets for the use of profanity on public transit.
Agencies/Canadajournal
