Is Their A Homeowner/Renter Who Doesn't Feel Her Frustration?

....but in retrospect Anne might want to re-evalute her trauma. She is a member of Raging Grandmas and should know the consequences of here actions.

Rage incident leaves Granny in fighting mood

Mary Vallis, National Post

Anne Selby, 74, had never received so much as a parking ticket before a police officer took her by the arm last winter and hauled her off to jail.

Five-foot-one, and weighing little more than 100 pounds, Ms. Selby took a stand after a plough operator refused to unblock her driveway in Orillia, after pushing snow in front of it. She stood in front of the plough on Dec. 2, 2008, and shouted that she would not move until the driver helped her.

The plough operator's supervisor soon arrived, and not long after that came the Ontario Provincial Police. A female officer took Ms. Selby's arm and declared, "You are going to jail." The officer told Ms. Selby she was out of control.

"I was standing there shivering and I thought, 'She's going to Taser me. And if she does, she will kill me,' " Ms. Selby said yesterday.

Ms. Selby, who lives alone with her terrier, Chloe, was handcuffed on the street, put in the back of a police car, driven to a police station and placed in a holding cell, where she experienced chest pains. She was released within an hour but faced a criminal charge of intimidation.

"I just felt targeted by hate," she said. "I've never felt so devastated in my life."

The charge hung over her for more than eight months as she waited for her day in court. Allan Millard, a retired lawyer and fellow Quaker, agreed to represent her. They appeared in front of a judge on Thursday prepared for a five-hour trial, but within minutes Justice Robert McCreary agreed to stay the charge at the Crown's request.

"Ann Selby had just been fretting, put it mildly, for all that time," Mr. Millard said. "She's a person of, I would say, a delicate constitution."

Ms. Selby, who performs with the Raging Grannies, a social justice group, is now considering filing a civil lawsuit.

"I'll never forget this. I'll never forget this until the day I die," Ms. Selby said. "They have robbed me of eight months of my life, which I cannot get back. At 74, I cannot afford that."

Not long after Ms. Selby's arrest, her lawyer sent a letter to the mayor and Orillia's town councillors outlining the incident. He argued Ms. Selby was "traumatized" and no longer trusts the police. Indeed, she changed her locks after her release, because she no longer felt safe.

"I am certain that Ms. Selby is not alone in wondering about the clamour in Orillia for more police and better police facilities when resources are wasted in arresting little old ladies," Mr. Millard wrote. He also implored the city to review its snow-clearing policies.

But Peter Dance, Orillia's director of public works, says, "We plough the roads, we don't dig driveways.

"There are lots of things that the city doesn't do for you, like carrying your groceries ... if you're not capable of doing certain things, then you get help, whether it's cutting your grass or shovelling your driveway."

On previous occasions, plough operators had agreed to clear her driveway after pushing snow in front of it.

mvallis@nationalpost.com