A busker who clashed with the City of North Vancouver in a battle over freedom of expression and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is now suing the city for $140,000.
Megan Regehr, who is better known by her stage name Babe Coal, filed a civil claim in B.C. Supreme Court last month claiming the city’s bylaw officers harassed her, misrepresented her in the media, trampled her freedom of expression and damaged her career.
In 2012, Regehr used to croon jazz music in the city’s plaza. But because she used a microphone and amp to be heard over the traffic noise, she received six $100 fines for running afoul of the city’s noise bylaw, which bans amplification.
In March 2014, Regehr had her day in court and attempted to have the city’s noise bylaw declared unconstitutional, arguing her mic and amp were integral to her freedom of expression. Instead, Justice Heather Holmes set aside the charter rights argument, “though carefully argued and certainly not frivolous,” and tossed out Regehr’s tickets after concluding the city’s bylaw wasn’t intended to apply to amplified music.
“…finally after adjudication, I could no longer physically or emotionally perform under the constant harassment and threat of North Vancouver city officials,’ Regehr’s claim states. “The result of the City of North Vancouver’s unlawful and malicious actions have caused me to be in poverty and has had a great and negative effect on my physical, emotional and financial well-being. As well it had a negative effect on the joy of my life, which is performing and has made me wish at times to not be Canadian.”
Regehr is now seeking $140,000 for four years’ loss of potential income, based on tips and CD sales during her 45-minute performances, five times a week, 50 weeks a year. She’s also seeking unspecified punitive damages for how her reputation and career have suffered – and to serve as a warning to other municipalities that may “unlawfully stop people from benefiting from their charter rights and freedoms.”
Regehr and her manager Mitch Barnes served the city with the claim in person during the April 4 council meeting.
In its statement of defence filed last week, the city denied all of Regehr’s claims.
“If the plaintiff suffered any injury, loss, damage or expense as alleged or at all, which is not admitted but is specifically denied, then the alleged injury, loss or expense was not caused or contributed to by any act, omission, breach of duty, statutory or otherwise, on the part of the city and/or its agents, servants or employees,” it states.
Further, the Local Government Act states that legal action against a municipality must be filed within six months of an alleged wrongdoing, the city’s lawyers argue.
The city has asked that Regher’s suit be dismissed and that costs be awarded to the city.
