Gerry Charlebois a 78 year old Great Grandfather from Ottawa Canada was arrested for honking his horn at the Freedom Convoy that is currently occupying Canada’s Capital City. According to police reports Gerry Charlebois was showing support to the Freedom Convoy and would honk his vehicle’s horn and gave a thumbs up sign however this has now been declared illegal. The four foot ten Gerry Charlebois was rather violently taken to the ground by Ottawa police as Freedom Convoy members yelled an assortment of abuses toward the police officer for the way they were dealing with Gerry Charlebois. In the end Gerry Charlebois ended up with a $110 fine and Ottawa Police have yet another incident they will have to explain. Make Sure To Check Out The Video Below
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The 78-year-old great-grandfather arrested and handcuffed by Ottawa Police after honking his horn in support for a protesting trucker said he was not a protester and was not looking for any trouble.
“I meant no harm,” Gerry Charlebois told the Toronto Sun in an interview. “I just gave the trucker a thumbs-up and a honk.”
At the same time as concerns over honking in the city reached a fever pitch, Ottawa Police pulled over an elderly, retired Ottawa-area high school janitor.
He was not charged criminally but given a $118 bylaw ticket for “unnecessary noise.” But he did receive a physical takedown he won’t soon forget.
“I’m so sore,” said the father of four children, grandfather of 11 and great-grandfather of four. “It hurts so much.”
The cuts and bruises on his arms and hands, shoulder and knee are evident. A shade of black and blue is more evident Tuesday, his family say.
Video footage of Sunday’s disturbing arrest, and agitators yelling at police during the incident, is being shared around the world.
Charlebois, who is double vaccinated and planning to get his booster shot, said he was “confused” during the incident at the corner of Besserer and Friel Sts., about four blocks from the main protest.
“I was in shock,” Charlebois said. “When (the police) pulled me over, he told me I was in trouble for honking the horn.”
While the video shows he cussed at the officer, Charlebois said he respects police “but I was just upset with him.” He said he had never before been arrested or on the wrong side of police.
“Never,” he said. “He just pissed me off when he said that about the honking. It upset me.”
Things deteriorated from there.
After attempting to get his identification from his wallet in the back of his minivan, Charlebois was taken down with the twisting of his arm and hand, and landed on one knee on the ground before being pressed against his van and then, with the help of a second officer, handcuffed behind his back.
His family is horrified.
“He’s just 4 foot 10,” his son Steve said. “He wouldn’t hurt anybody.”
His sons can’t understand why, with all of the rhetoric about it being a fringe minority from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, it was their father who ended up being the one scapegoated.
“They didn’t seem to arrest any of those big truckers like that,” another son, Gerald, said.
The size and age difference with the much younger and larger officer further angered both Gerald and Steve.
“I find it disgusting,” Gerald said. “There was no need to be so rough with him.”
With a “very messed-up shoulder” and having difficult moving his arm, Steve said of his dad: “We may have to take him to the hospital for an X-ray.”
On Tuesday morning, Gerald said he was “more sore today than yesterday.”
Neither Ottawa Police nor Mayor Jim Watson have commented so far
Charlebois said he just drove into the area to take a look at the trucks and was planning on getting out of his van and walking to Parliament Hill.
“That’s why I put my wallet in the back of the van,” he said. “I was hoping to go in there, but when I got there I saw all of the commotion. I decided it was too much so I just looked from the van and then started to head home.”
Now he wonders if it would have been better if he had not gone to the protest zone instead.
However, the history is written. This was a senior citizen born in 1943, forcefully arrested and ticketed for unnecessary noise after honking his horn in support of a trucker.
