With his medical supplies in hand, and leaning heavily on his cane, Chisholm resident Norval Rose stands outside the North Bay courthouse on Jan. 3 ready to fight a $110 fine for not wearing a helmet while riding his all-terrain vehicle on a township road. Though the charges were withdrawn, Rose is continuing to fight what he sees as police injustice.
NORTH BAY – Chisholm resident Norval Rose appeared in North Bay court on Jan. 3 clutching a small blue case containing his insulin and other medical supplies in preparation for a jail term. While he left the courtroom a free man, he was not necessarily happy about the outcome.
“I came here prepared to fight the charges and go to jail if necessary,” the fiesty 80-year-old farmer told the Almaguin News. “But instead, I didn’t even get the chance to speak my mind. I have been treated like nothing more than a puppet of the police and the court system.”
Charges against Rose, who faced a fine of $110 for not wearing a helmet while driving his all-terrain vehicle (ATV) were withdrawn by North Bay City Prosecutor Lauren Scully because the investigating officer was unable to attend the court due to injuries he had received in a serious vehicular accident last October.
When Rose learned from Scully, just minutes before court opened, of the withdrawal of the charge he told her “I went through a lot of hardship as a result of this and I came here today to fight the charge and the OPP. As far as I’m concerned, this charge never should have been laid in the first place, and I’d like to have my say.”
Scully, who told Rose that she disagreed with his assessment of the charge, said, “it’s your lucky day, in a sense,” however, Rose was not appeased.
“The media are here to hear this case, and the story is all over Ontario,” he told her. “I even brought along my medical supplies because I thought they’d take me straight to jail.”
Rose’s case was first made public by the Almaguin News on Nov. 21, 2007 and was quickly picked up by other media outlets across the province. “I’ve had calls from about 25 different people, from Sudbury to Peterborough, who have read about me in their local papers,” he said. “Everyone has supported me and I had no idea the OPP were so hated until this came out.”
In September 2007, Rose was stopped by OPP officer Darryl Leigh who was patrolling Chiswick Line and saw him riding his ATV without a helmet. Rose told the officer that he was working, inspecting his fences and recent township ditching along his property line “and you can’t do that with a helmet on,” he said. “I had my helmet right there on the front of the machine, but he wouldn’t accept that and gave me a ticket. He said he had a job to do, and I told him I had a job to do too, and I’d see him in court.”
Following his brief court appearance, where he was not given an opportunity to address the charges, Rose told the News, “this isn’t over yet. I’m just seething inside. I’m going to take this up with both MPPs Monique Smith and Norm Miller and I’m going to bring it up to Chisholm council as well. The council pays $70,000 a year for OPP community policing. That’s tax money out of my pocket that’s been used to harass an old, ill man, and that isn’t right. What we need in Chisholm Township isn’t community policing, it’s good, common sense policing. I am not a well man, and I have been very unreasonably dealt with. Everyone has a right to express their opinion, and mine was taken away from me today.”
Rose, who said he had paid municipal taxes in Chisholm for over 60 years, added that the township “shouldn’t have a policing system set up that puts a crippled old man like me through this kind of stress, with no satisfaction given me at the end of it.” He said “I was never worried about the $110, I just want to get my point across. We need to clean up the OPP. They can’t go around with a stun gun in one hand and a hand gun in the other treating rural residents like criminals.”
Though he admits that making changes to the police system “is a big job,” Rose said “it has to start somewhere, and that somewhere is with me.”
Rose wasted no time in notifying Chisholm council of his intentions, and had an appearance booked for the Jan. 8 council meeting.
Editorial
