[Banana699]

>constantly harassing

I see this word used multiple times in people arguing against the protest, never with any details about the concrete instances of the supposed harassment. Noise is not harassment, any activity with a large group of people is going to annoy and disturb the place they happen to choose to congregate, this is not even specific to protests.

Actually, just to be clear, what exactly did the protestors do besides blocking the road and making a lot of noise?

>protests last for maybe an afternoon or day or two at most

So

(1) The duration of a protest and

(2) How much inconvenience it causes to the locals

are the two factors that determine whether it's a legitimate protest or not ?

[tekstar]

Noise is 100% absolutely definitely harassment, especially when it is over 100dB within people's homes, and every hour of the day for weeks on end. Why do you say it's not? It was loud enough to cause permanent damage and was unending for a significant portion of the occupation, until a citizen managed to get a court injunction.

The level of noise, the duration of the noise, and the tools they were using to create that noise (including multiple actual train horns) were all illegal under existing laws, as well.

[the_why_of_y]

You mean they did this at night? Wow. And police let this go on for multiple nights? When sleep deprivation is done to alleged terrorists, Amnesty International calls it torture.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/sleep-deprivation-is-torture...

[tekstar]

Yes. Exactly. They'd also put off fireworks at random hours of the night to add to it.

[Banana699]

>Why do you say it's not?

Because it's not, harassment is usually implied to be personal, involving hostile contact between the harasser(s) and the harassed. Did the protestors shout insults or threats at you or other neighborhood residents ?

>all illegal under existing laws

Do we really need to constantly circle back to the point that protests have to be lawful ? they do not, protesting is about breaking the ordinary and disrupting the status quo, that's the point, especially when the people protesting feel cornered and without a lawful retort to perceived injustices.

Every action against the government will hurt the population to some degree or another, 100db noise seems pretty mild compared to the private property damage valued in the millions that large-scale protests usually cause. Prioritising comfort over protest is implicitely siding with the government, which is your right off course, as long as you're explicit about it.

Edit : 100db noise turns out to be a deadly serious matter, I apologize to the person I'm replying to for making light of it.

I still believe it's wrong to use this as justification for quashing a protest, there is a whole spectrum of solutions from reasoning with the protestors to wearing ear covers, but I can better understand and empathize with the antagonism most of the affected city's residents hold toward the protests.

[klyrs]

Here's a helpful chart:

https://whitecathearing.com/when-is-sound-dangerous

At 100dB, a safe dose is about 15 minutes. Blowing horns all day for weeks on end poses a significant risk of severe hearing loss. Per affected person, a hearing loss payout can be up to around $100k. Given the ~1M people in Ottawa, I would expect the physical damage to persons in the area to exceed the millions of dollars in your "[usual] large-scale protest."

[Banana699]

I see, it was ignorant of me to dismiss that harm, edited my reply to reflect my understanding.

Thanks for the perspective.

[tekstar]

> 100db noise seems pretty mild

I'm done arguing with you. Bye.