You better watch out, you better not cry. You better not post decidedly unfestive signage along a parade route, I’m telling you why: Because people will call the police.
Well, maybe it’s not as catchy as the original, but that’s what happened in Brantford, Ont., last weekend during the city’s annual Santa Claus parade.
Brantford police confirmed with CBC News that they received calls from upset residents, as well as online and in-person complaints, after someone in a house along the parade route posted anti-Santa signs in its windows.
Brantford is about 100 kilometres southwest of Toronto. The daytime parade on Saturday attracted about 30,000 onlookers, according to the Brantford Expositor.
According to multiple social media posts that claim to show the house, the colourful signs said (and children, avert your eyes): “Santa is fake,” “Santa isn’t real,” “Your parents are Santa” and “Your family buys your presents.”
They’ve since been removed, according to police.
“An officer spoke with the individual responsible and the signs have since been removed,” Robin Matthews-Osmond, corporate communications manager for the Brantford Police Service, told CBC News in an online statement.
“While it isn’t illegal to be a ‘Grinch,’ we do encourage everyone to embrace the spirit of the season and help foster a positive, welcoming community, especially during events like the Santa Claus Parade,” she said.
Matthews-Osmond confirmed the signs weren’t illegal because of free speech laws and the fact that they were on private property.
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Online reaction to the signage was swift and merciless, with people calling it “mean-spirited” and “absolutely disgusting.”
“You don’t get to crush someone’s spirit or ruin something for someone else just because you don’t like something,” someone commented on a Facebook post by The Canadian Gothic podcast.
“How miserable do you have to be to actively try to ruin someone’s childhood?” wrote someone on an Instagram post by the Canadian lifestyle network 6ixBuzzTV.
But as appalled by some people may be, it’s not a criminal act or a hate crime to tell kids Santa isn’t real, said Michael Geist, the Canada Research Chair in internet and e-commerce law at the University of Ottawa’s faculty of law.
“I don’t think it’s unlawful either, though perhaps a municipal bylaw against a disturbance might be applied in a given circumstance,” Geist told CBC News.
“But even then, it would be subject to challenge on Charter grounds protecting freedom of expression.”
That said, there have been cases where people were arrested for trying to spoil Santa.
In 2018, police in Texas arrested a 31-year-old man who told kids Santa wasn’t real outside a church that was hosting a breakfast with Santa event. Police said the man, who was protesting with two others, refused to leave and continued to cause a disturbance so he was charged with criminal trespass, according to The Associated Press.
In Kingston, Ont., police charged a man who was allegedly telling children Santa Claus did not exist during the city’s annual Santa Claus parade in 2012.
He was reportedly walking up and down the street telling kids his beliefs until his arrest. He faced charges of causing a disturbance by being drunk, breaching probation and public intoxication.
Then, there’s Richard Dildy, a Toronto man who was arrested in 1979 after protesting inside and outside the Toronto Eaton Centre, shouting to holiday shoppers that Santa isn’t real, according to Toronto Today.
Dildy was arrested again during Toronto’s 1980 Santa Claus Parade for shouting, “There is no Santa Claus,” the publication said. He was given a $50 fine.
