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From http://metronews.ca/news/ottawa/3602...hamp-260-fine/ :
Local chess champion Daryl Bertrand walked away with a $260 fine after he broke out his novelty-sized chess set in ByWard Market Monday and challenged all comers to a game.
As 40 to 50 onlookers gathered around his match against a 10-year-old boy, Bertrand says three police officers and a market manager broke up the game to ticket him for “providing free entertainment.”
“The spectators started speaking up,” said Bertrand, who is a chess master candidate – one step below a national master. “They said everyone here disagrees with you, you’re killing the culture of Ottawa in the market.”
Despite their protests, the cops slapped Bertrand with a $260 fine for busking without a license. A city by-law created in 2008 which started being enforced in 2010 requires all buskers in the market to pay a fee of $50 for a license and daily busking permits that start at $10.45 and can cost as much as $200.
Since Bertrand plays mainly for fun — he typically makes only $20 a day — the catch for him, aside from costs, is that buskers have to reserve their spots at the beginning of the day and rotate through one of 12 designated busking sites every hour.
“It takes me about 15 minutes to set up because of the size of my board and the chairs,” he said. “It’s really cumbersome to take it around. If I follow the law, during that 40-minute game with that boy I’d be under duress to finish up.”
“The whole thing is to give people a good experience of chess and the ByWard Market. Are people going to want to come back if they have a bad experience?”
City officials say the bylaw was brought in to resolve any disputes between performers and make sure there is hourly turnover on the sites. Citing cost recovery, a city pamphlet also notes “all businesses that sell their goods or services on the Market contribute financially to the overall management including the promotion and marketing of the area.”
With ticket in hand, Bertrand said he’s going to consult a lawyer and hopes to have the bylaw thrown out.
“My ultimate goal is for them to just change the regulations so that people can play in peace,” he said. “I would be ecstatic if I could go out and play chess again.”
Local chess champion Daryl Bertrand walked away with a $260 fine after he broke out his novelty-sized chess set in ByWard Market Monday and challenged all comers to a game.
As 40 to 50 onlookers gathered around his match against a 10-year-old boy, Bertrand says three police officers and a market manager broke up the game to ticket him for “providing free entertainment.”
“The spectators started speaking up,” said Bertrand, who is a chess master candidate – one step below a national master. “They said everyone here disagrees with you, you’re killing the culture of Ottawa in the market.”
Despite their protests, the cops slapped Bertrand with a $260 fine for busking without a license. A city by-law created in 2008 which started being enforced in 2010 requires all buskers in the market to pay a fee of $50 for a license and daily busking permits that start at $10.45 and can cost as much as $200.
Since Bertrand plays mainly for fun — he typically makes only $20 a day — the catch for him, aside from costs, is that buskers have to reserve their spots at the beginning of the day and rotate through one of 12 designated busking sites every hour.
“It takes me about 15 minutes to set up because of the size of my board and the chairs,” he said. “It’s really cumbersome to take it around. If I follow the law, during that 40-minute game with that boy I’d be under duress to finish up.”
“The whole thing is to give people a good experience of chess and the ByWard Market. Are people going to want to come back if they have a bad experience?”
City officials say the bylaw was brought in to resolve any disputes between performers and make sure there is hourly turnover on the sites. Citing cost recovery, a city pamphlet also notes “all businesses that sell their goods or services on the Market contribute financially to the overall management including the promotion and marketing of the area.”
With ticket in hand, Bertrand said he’s going to consult a lawyer and hopes to have the bylaw thrown out.
“My ultimate goal is for them to just change the regulations so that people can play in peace,” he said. “I would be ecstatic if I could go out and play chess again.”
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