Shouting an obscenity in public is not a crime, the Newfoundland and Labrador Court of Appeal has ruled. The decision came in the case of a St. John’s motorist who hollered a drive-by vulgarity at a TV reporter and was charged with disturbing the peace..“People conducting a conversation or business in a public place may be distracted for any number of reasons including someone shouting an obscenity at them,” wrote Justice Gale Welsh. Mere distraction was not enough to violate the Criminal Code, Welsh added..According to Blacklock's Reporter, Justin Penton of St. John’s in 2017 was charged with causing a public disturbance. Evidence showed Penton spotted an NTV News reporter conducting a roadside interview with a St. John’s city councillor and shouted “f—k her” in a loud voice as he drove past..Penton was charted under Criminal Code section 175.1 forbidding misconduct that “causes a disturbance in or near a public place by fighting, screaming, shouting, swearing, singing or using insulting or obscene language.” The driver apologized and was acquitted in 2018, prompting two failed appeals by Crown prosecutors..The judge at Penton’s original trial ruled while the conduct was “vile and loathsome and should be severely denounced,” it was not a crime. “This was but a momentary interruption,” said the trial judge. “Something more than emotional upset and a momentary interruption in a conversation is needed to constitute the criminal offence of causing a disturbance in a public place.”.Justice Welsh of the Court of Appeal agreed. “Mr. Penton shouted one obscenity,” said the Court. “There was no one else in the area. This is not a case similar to creating interference with the public peace by continuously shouting in a residential neighbourhood late at night.”.“To disturb a user of a public place does not amount to a disturbance unless there is an interference with the ordinary and customary conduct or use of the place,” wrote Justice Welsh. “In short, while Mr. Penton’s shouted obscenity disturbed the complainant and the city councillor it did not cause a disturbance that would support a conviction.”.The NTV News reporter, Heather Gillis, testified at trial she felt “humiliated and embarrassed” over the drive-by slur. Local police had recommended Gillis file charges after she wrote down the license plate of the passing vehicle.
