In early May, an Ottawa boy riding in a school bus gave a police officer the middle finger, leading to them pulling the bus over and scolding the child.
According to the Ottawa Citizen, a complaint filed by Anne Lecesque, a human-rights lawyer and professor at the University of Ottawa law faculty, claimed the police boarded the bus after the boy flipped them off and began yelling at him.
"One of (the officers) came in and started arguing with the boy in the back because the boy had given him the finger," Levesque explained.
The argument led to the police following the bus to the school where they would then report the child to the principal.
The child's parents, however, are filing their own complaint against the officer who boarded the bus and yelled at their son.
The Ottawa Police Service's professional-standards unit for investigation has begun reviewing the incident and will try to complete it within 120 days.
“My daughters were very disturbed by all this (and I imagine the child in question was, too) … What’s more, there was no reason to stop the bus or threaten the child. Just because someone is a child doesn’t mean they don’t have a constitutional right,“ Levesque said to the Ottawa Citizen.
Earlier this year, a Quebec judge ruled that Canadians have a "God-given" right to give the middle finger.
