Although the B.C. Supreme Court ruled in her favour in one part of her case against the City of North Vancouver, Babe Coal feels unsatisfied by the decision.
The Vancouver-based musician, whose legal name is listed in court documents as Megan MacKenzie Regehr, received six bylaw infraction tickets from July 25, 2012 to Sept. 4, 2012 for using a microphone and small amplifier while performing at the Civic Plaza in North Vancouver.
At the time, the singer and her manager Mitch Barnes said the laws infringed on her rights to free expression under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
She also feared that city councils across the country would enact similar noise bylaws that would result in buskers and street musicians paying fines or facing similar legal hurdles.
"I see ... my microphone and my amplifier (as) part of my expression. That's my art form," Coal told the North Shore News at the time. "(Without them), I couldn't be heard. I whisper when I sing. I'm a crooner. ... I wouldn't be heard above the vehicles on the street."
The B.C. Supreme Court set aside the bylaw tickets in a March 26 ruling, though it also said that Coal's constitutional challenges, "though carefully argued and certainly not frivolous, should not be determined in this case."
Though she won her battle over the tickets, the musician vowed to fight on in a series of tweets:
Coal also released a lengthy letter saying she would take her case to the B.C. Court of Appeal and, if necessary, the Supreme Court of Canada, soliciting donations for her legal fight through her website.
"Today I am saddened by this ruling because though I have technically won, I did not win any thing I asked for, nothing of significance, and I got no justice," she wrote in her letter.
"With only the tickets being decided on, I feel no justice for (myself) and my fellow Canadians in this matter and I fear the direction of our legal system and the betterment of our country."
Coal has asked the courts to "acknowledge that people who publicly express themselves need to be seen as an 'Identifiable Group of People' that have been persecuted and prosecuted in the past and need to be protected by the Canadian Constitution and Section 2(b) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms."
She also said that cities should work with street performers and consider their freedom of expression when drawing up bylaws.
On a personal level, Coal said that when her battle made headlines, she "endured two individuals aggressively harassing me online, trying to intimidate me out of going to court by saying that they would be there to support the opposing side and threatening to call the police on me every time I was out."
She also alleged that she has been "bullied on a daily basis" by bylaw officers and police.
"My health has suffered, my heart has suffered, my love of music has suffered, my love for my country has suffered, every day I suffer until this matter is resolved."
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