Dr. Dawg

Violence against women: the Camrose incident

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Tibu.JPG

Readers may or may not remember my account in 2013 of a dentist in Camrose, Alberta, Dr. Simona Tibu, who was beaten to a pulp by a brave local cop, Sgt. Oscar Rob Behiels, after he stopped her on the highway for speeding.

She might well have been guilty of “contempt of cop.” She’s not overly fond of them. In any case, male punishment for uppity women was swiftly administered.

She was charged, of course, with assault on police—that’s just routine. And she was convicted, too, by a judge named Gordon Yake. The media, as usual, played along. They had originally refused to name the cop, and even blanked out his face in a photograph. Now they reported that her “bizarre behaviour” was the issue.

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The thuggish cop in the photo above wasted no time after the conviction, suing her for defamation.

That case remains before the courts. But, in the meantime, Dr. Tibu has seen a measure of justice. It turns out that Behiels had no legal grounds to arrest her. Convictions on the bogus charges against her were overturned on appeal in December, 2015.

The judge was unsparing. Behiels made 10-12 demands for ID in 44 seconds: Tibu was given no time to respond before she was set upon. As for Judge Yake, she was as clear as can be: he had “misapprehended the facts” and “ignored evidence.” One suspects a bit of male bonding between the judge and the officer who beat up a woman who might have been lippy with him.

The Crown appealed, but was turned down flat this month. Violence against women was not, as things turned out, rewarded by the justice system in Alberta. With clearance of the faked-up charges, Tibu may now have adequate defence against the rogue cop’s defamation action. But matters should not end there. I, for one, hope that she now sues the cop and his department for everything but police badges to cover their modesty. This story cries aloud for a satisfactory ending.

UPDATE: She filed suit a week ago. H/t to reader trapdinawrpool for being more thorough than I was.

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This page contains a single entry by Dr. Dawg published on April 18, 2016 1:07 PM.

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