At what point does the sound of children playing in the spring weather become an infraction of the law? It’s a question that has stirred up a vociferous debate in the small Canadian city of Coquitlam in British Columbia, after a mother of three was told to rein in her children after repeated noise complaints from neighbours.
Jana D’Addabbo, mother to a six-year-old boy and boy and girl twins aged eight, came home Saturday to a notice of violation left on her door by a city bylaw officer. The yellow slip said her children had been creating “noise that disturbs” while they were out playing in front of their home.
The warning – which carries no financial penalty – recommended that she speak to the children about being considerate to neighbours when playing outside. “Please have them keep yelling and screaming to a minimum,” it added. She was also asked to speak to her kids about staying safe when riding scooters and skateboards in the street.
D’Addabbo took to Facebook to retaliate. “How do you complain about kids playing outside and being noisy during the day?” Taking aim at the idea that taxpayer money was being used to crack down on noisy kids, she added: “I rather my kids be outside than inside sitting on iPads and not being active.”
The city’s mayor weighed in on Tuesday. “This particular household had multiple complaints over multiple years from multiple neighbours,” Richard Stewart wrote on Facebook. “Rocks and other objects thrown at neighbour’s yard, at neighbour’s toddler, screaming of profanities by both adults and children, young children riding scooters at significant speed in traffic with no helmets, dangerous behaviour that put the children themselves at risk, that put others at risk.”
The notice was only issued because the family wasn’t home when the bylaw officer stopped by, he said. It simply asked the parents – even using the word please twice – to better supervise their children.
“It wasn’t ‘ticketed for playing’. It was ‘urged to show a little respect to neighbours and the children’,” he said. “I’ve now seen enough on this matter to know it was an extreme case and that the measured and polite notice was appropriate.”
