Judge says it is public’s right to give the finger

IT may not be civil; it may not be polite and it may not be gentlemanly, but giving someone the middle finger is not a crime, a judge in Canada has ruled, adding that it is a right “that belongs to every red-blooded Canadian”.

In a bizarre case in Montreal, a teacher was accused of harassing his neighbour in a long-running dispute over children playing in the road.

Teacher and father-of-two Neall Epstein claimed that his neighbour Michael Naccache held up a drill and said: “You f------ crazy neighbour; you dips--t,” adding: “You’re f------ dead.” In response, Mr Epstein told him to “f--off ” and stuck up his middle finger.

When Mr Epstein returned home from a long walk, the police were at his door and proceeded to arrest him on suspicion of criminal harassment and uttering death threats.

Judge Dennis Galiatsatos was incredulous that the case had reached court.

In a remarkable 26-page decision, he said the grievances were “nothing more than mundane, petty neighbourhood trivialities” and said it was “deplorable” that Mr Naccache had “weaponised the criminal justice system in an attempt to exert revenge for some perceived slights that are, at best, trivial peeves”.

He added: “To be abundantly clear, it is not a crime to give someone the finger.

“Offending someone is not a crime. It is an integral component of one’s freedom of expression.”