🎥 Updated With Interview - Chalk, Cops, and City Hall: A Costly Council Committee Circus
Geraldine…presented a case from 2020 about Ottawa police detaining people three separate times for writing messages in chalk on public sidewalks. In June of that year, a woman was detained for writing "Black Lives Matter" in chalk. Police threatened to charge her with mischief because she did not have permission. The very next day, Ottawa's mayor Jim Watson tweeted that his permission was not needed to chalk on the sidewalk.
Geraldine 1 - City Hall 0
Under this law, chalk is legally the same as spray paint. The bylaw also doesn't mention sidewalks. But spray paint on a sidewalk is clearly graffiti. So if chalking a building is graffiti, then chalking a sidewalk is also graffiti. Every hopscotch grid. Every "you are loved" message. All of it. Illegal.
