Crown will again appeal acquittal in sexist-slur case
Summary appeal judge misinterpreted and misapplied previous cases, along with other errors, Crown alleges
The Crown is appealing — for the second time — the acquittal of a man who yelled a sexist slur at a TV reporter in St. John’s in 2017, arguing the last appeal judge made multiple errors in his ruling.
Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court Justice Garrett Handrigan erred when he failed to find that Justin Denis Penton’s actions met the legal definition of causing a disturbance and that the elements of the crime had been made out, and he misinterpreted and misapplied a previous Supreme Court of Canada decision relevant to the case, the Crown alleges in its application to the province’s Court of Appeal.
Penton was charged after he yelled a slur at then-ntv news reporter Heather Gillis as she was on assignment.
Gillis had just wrapped up an interview with Danny Breen, then a councillor and now mayor of St. John’s, at the Robin Hood Bay landfill facility, when Penton drove by in his pickup and yelled, “F--her in the p---y!” — a version of a slur first seen in a series of Youtube videos in 2014.
Female reporters across the continent have been subjected to the phrase being yelled at them from passersby. Many of the incidents have been caught on camera. In some Canadian cases, the person yelling the phrase has lost their job or been criminally charged as a result.
Gillis snapped a photo of Penton’s licence plate and posted it on Twitter, where the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary saw it and encouraged her to make a complaint.
Penton acknowledged yelling the phrase at Gillis and apologized for it when he was visited by police, but pleaded not guilty in court to a charge of disturbing the peace.
Provincial court Judge Colin Flynn acquitted him, saying prior cases in the country had set a precedent where an incident must disturb the “ordinary and customary workings” of a public place to be criminal. Flynn said while it’s possible that yelling the phrase could amount to a crime, in this case it didn’t.
The Crown appealed the summary conviction to Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court, which ruled the same way. Handrigan called Penton’s actions “vile and loathsome,” but found in this particular case they didn’t meet the criteria for a charge of causing a disturbance.
The new appeal is expected to be heard before a panel of appellate judges at a later date.