Science Fiction Writer to be jailed over questioning authority — Let me summarize. A guy is in his car at the border and gets out to find out what the delay is. He asks some a-hole working the border as to what’s going on. The border guy tells him to get back into his car. The guy does not rush back to his car as ordered and gets arrested for a bogus felony. This is just the sort of thing we need for good relationships with our Canadian neighbor. Reading the various reports (below) about this and you’ll know immediately who is in the right and who is in the wrong. But that apparently means nothing.

Didn’t work out that way. Because, there is this statute – that essentially criminalizes non-compliance to such a broad degree that asking a question (as Peter did) before complying with an order from a border guard is a felony. In terms of the sentence one might serve – well, Peter might as well have choked Beaudry. It amounts to the same thing.

As Peter explains on his blog:The press has frequently characterized the charge against me as “assaulting a federal officer”. The alleged (and discredited) “choking” episode has been repeated ad nauseum. Here at the Sarnia Best Western I don’t have the actual statute in front of me but it includes a lengthy grab-bag of actions, things like “assault”, “resist”, “impede”, “threaten”, “obstruct” — hell, “contradict” might be in there for all I know. And under “obstruct” is “failure to comply with a lawful order”, and it’s explicitly stated that violence on the part of the perp is not necessary for a conviction. Basically, everything from asking “Why?” right up to chain-saw attack falls under the same charge. And it’s all a felony.

Cory Doctorow commentary

Found by Micah Phillips.