SELECTED CASE LAW
BRITISH COLUMBIA:
At the trial level, 2012 BCSC 2009, Mr. T was found guilty of criminal harassment and breach-ing his probation. He and Ms. C were involved in an on again/off again relationship involving domestic violence. While Mr. T was imprisoned for threatening, assaulting and unlawfully con-fining Ms. C, she met another man and married him. Mr. T did not want to accept that the relationship was over. When he was released from custody, his probation order prohibited him from contacting Ms. C directly or indirectly but Mr. T called and left a voicemail on her phone naming her husband. This caused Ms. C fear, because he had used threatening referenced to people she was close to in the past, where they lived and how he could reach them to frighten her. He also approached her in a parking lot, left items on her vehicle, sent emails to people they knew asking about Ms. C, and sent emails to politicians, news outlets, and police officers expressing concern about Ms. C and her husband. The information in those emails indicated that Mr. T had been accessing and reading Ms. C’s personal email account. This conduct consisted of repeated harassing behaviour. Mr. T would also watch her apartment from the McDonald’s across the street, used a video camera to film her apartment, and claimed to have recorded his conversations and meetings with Ms. C. This consisted of “watching” harassing behaviour. Mr. T waited for Ms. C in her parking lot and her husband told him to leave. Mr. T knelt down in a position of someone pointing a gun at them. This counted as threatening harassing behaviour.
He was sentenced to 4.5 years of incarceration, was ordered to surrender any weapons and given a 10 years weapons prohibition.
Mr. T appealed his conviction, but the appeal was dismissed. He also appealed his sentence which was varied to give him additional credit for time served.
Also see: 2014 BCCA 138; 2012 BCSC 2209; 2012 BCSC 2208.
Criminal Offence(s): Criminal Harassment