The Outlaws motorcycle club says it was unfairly targeted and denied the right to honour veterans at a Remembrance Day ceremony in Sarnia, where a club member was arrested after trying to lay a black wreath at the Cenotaph.
But Ontario’s top biker cop says the club chose to break the rules at the ceremony and was seeking attention by wearing their patches to the event.
The incident during Monday’s ceremony at Veterans Park, most of it captured on video, shocked onlookers, the city’s mayor and police chief and sparked a debate on social media about whether Sarnia police or the bikers were in the wrong.
The Outlaws, the third-largest motorcycle club in the world, took the rare step of releasing a formal statement Thursday.
“Many members of the Outlaws MC are veterans. And now veterans/civilians are denied their right to honour the fallen,” the club said in a statement posted to its website Friday.
READ THE FULL STATEMENT HERE
“There should be no discrimination about against what people wear to Remembrance Day. No other Canadians are being refused to attend this event.”
Several people wearing outlaw motorcycle gang clothing, one of them carrying a wreath in club colours, inserted themselves into the wreath-laying line, Sarnia police said.
Both Royal Canadian Legion branch officials and police asked the bikers to leave, but they responded with “loud, foul and abusive language” that disrupted the solemnity of the ceremony and continued their unruly behavior until officers arrested two people, police said.
The head of the OPP-led biker enforcement unit said the Outlaws members and their supporters weren’t following the rules.
“They intentionally didn’t follow the rules and they were asked to leave,” Det.-Insp. Scott Wade said. “I think they wanted attention. They wanted to lay their black wreath and have everybody look at them and talk about the Outlaws.”
It’s not unheard of for members of outlaw motorcycle clubs to turn up at Remembrance Day ceremonies, Wade said.
“Part of it is there are a lot of (military) veterans in outlaw motorcycle gangs,” he said, adding the Bacchus and Outlaws clubs have more veterans than the Hells Angels.
The Sarnia Legion branch that organized the ceremony released a statement Monday afternoon, saying the Royal Canadian Legion has a national policy that prohibits anyone from wearing outlaw motorcycle club or street gang colours at Legion properties and events.
“All motorcycle riders are still welcome at Legion branches and events, but the new policy means outlaw motorcycle members would need to remove their colours first,” Branch 62 said in a Facebook post, citing the policy introduced in 2017.
The president of Branch 62 didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The Outlaws dispute the Remembrance Day ceremony was a Legion event, saying it’s a federal event that should be open to everyone, regardless of what they’re wearing.
“To single out some motorcycle clubs as a whole not to attend a public event is unconstitutional,” the club said.
The term outlaw motorcycle club refers to one-per-cent clubs, a term used to distinguish the outlaw clubs from law-abiding motorcycling enthusiasts.
That label applies to the Outlaws, the Hells Angels and their various support and puppet clubs, all of which embrace “the power of the patch,” Wade said.
“They want people to see it, they want people to know, ‘We’re here,’” he said of members wearing their club’s patches in public.
Established in McCook, Ill., in 1936, the Outlaws are the oldest motorcycle club in the world and the third largest, with more than a dozen chapters across Ontario, including London and Sarnia.
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A video of Monday’s incident in Sarnia shows tactical officers escorting two men – one wearing an Outlaws patch, the other sporting a Filthy 15 patch – through the crowd while a voice on a speaker reads out names of people laying wreaths. The man wearing the Outlaws vest, who is carrying a cane in one hand and a black wreath in the other, appears to limp as he tries to keep pace with the two officers escorting him down the street.
The two-minute video by YourTV Sarnia shows four men, some also wearing patches, following police along with a woman who tries to take the cane from the man shortly before police handcuff him. The other bikers move closer and the woman begins recording the arrest with her cellphone before a tactical officer rushes over to grab her and she falls backward. The woman gets up and begins recording again before she’s arrested.
Arthur Shura, 64, of Sarnia is charged with causing a disturbance and breaching a court order, police said. Karen Pelkie, 46, of Sarnia is charged with causing a disturbance and resisting arrest. Both were released from custody and scheduled to appear in court Dec. 12.
Sarnia police Chief Derek Davis, who marched in the parade alongside a contingent of officers, defended the police response.
“We were asked to take action and the officers responded appropriately,” he said.
– with files by Paul Morden