Independent candidate arrested at high school debate
Robert Bowers charged with trespassing and given a $65 ticket
Independent candidate Robert Bowers says he plans to fight the ticket he received after police arrested him and held him in custody for 90 minutes when he refused to leave a debate at a city high school.
Bowers, 72, was arrested at Adam
Scott Collegiate on Oct.
10. He was charged with trespassing.
He said he went to the school to attend the all-candidates meeting for the Peterborough-Kawartha riding but was told he wasn’t invited or allowed to take part and was asked to leave.
While standing outside the auditorium doors, Bowers said a man who introduced himself as the principal approached him and asked him to leave.
“I said I wasn’t going to leave until I was heard,” Bowers recalled.
The man asked Bowers to leave a few more times, saying he was trespassing, and each time he stood his ground, Bowers said.
Bowers said he explained that he was a candidate and it was an all-candidates meeting.
“I have every right to be here,” he told the man.
That’s when police were called.
When officers arrived, Bowers told them they’d have to remove him.
“It was more a protest than
anything else,” he said, adding he wasn’t handcuffed.
Adam Scott principal Wilf Gray couldn’t be reached for comment Wednesday and Diane Lloyd, the chairperson of the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board, didn’t return the Examiner’s phone call.
Bowers was taken to the city police station where he said he spent 90 minutes behind bars and received a $65 ticket.
He doesn’t have any intention of paying the fine, though.
“It’s not the value of the fine, it’s the insult.”
So far, Bowers said he’s been invited to three of the 15 or so local debates, which is unjust.
“I’m very angry at our system. When this can be allowed in our system, there’s something wrong.”
None of the other candidates at the school debate saw the altercation and few knew of the arrest afterwards. Green candidate Andrew MacGregor said he knew Bowers hadn’t been invited to select debates but noted that some meetings are “private events” held in private spaces.
NDP candidate Candace Shaw said fringe parties ought to be invited to make a statement at debates if they’re not invited to participate.
That said, Shaw added that the meeting took place at 9 a.m. when school was in session and schools take it seriously when someone tries to come onto school property uninvited.
Meanwhile, Liberal incumbent Maryam Monsef and Stop Climate Change candidate Ken Ranney said Bowers told them of his arrest later that evening.
Both Monsef and Ranney said it takes a lot of work and courage to run in an election.
“I want to thank Mr. Bowers and all local candidates for having the courage to put their names on the ballot,” Monsef stated in an email to the Examiner.
“It’s not easy to get nominated,” Ranney said.
“He did that and he deserves to be heard.”
Conservative candidate Michael Skinner had no comment Wednesday.
People’s Party of Canada candidate Alex Murphy said he had “no opinion on it.”
Bowers went to the Provincial Offences office Wednesday to dispute the ticket and will receive a court date in the coming weeks, he said.