After a West Island mother apologized over the weekend for a police intervention at a lemonade stand run by her two sons, the Montreal Police Department (SPVM) is now offering its version of events.
For the past two weekends, Ayana Massa’s two children, Ariel, eight, and Ness, 11, have been selling lemonade on the front lawn of their family’s Roxborough home in an effort to raise money for the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada.
They hope to help find a cure for the disease their mother was diagnosed with two years ago.
Massa told Global News that the boys were using a megaphone to promote their lemonade stand when an angry passerby approached, verbally assaulted the boys and threatened to call the police.
READ MORE: Montreal mother demands apology for police intervention at son’s lemonade stand
In an emailed statement Monday afternoon, Montreal police said they had received four 911 calls about excessive noise at the stand since July 23, so they came to investigate Saturday.
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“I told him, ‘Look, officer, give me a ticket. I will pay the fine. He said, “Oh, I won’t give you a fine. You think because you’re in a wheelchair you’re above the law,” she told Global News on Sunday.
Massa said the officers told her the stand should be closed and that they were aggressive and threatened to arrest her.
Montreal police said they had no intention of stopping the operation, even though the sale of lemonade is not allowed in the residential sectors of the Pierrefonds-Roxboro district. They say they only showed up because of the noise complaints.
“This is the only reason officers from Station 3 have been on the scene multiple times,” Montreal police said in an email to Global News. “Station 3 had no intention of closing the kiosk.”
Police say the mother wanted the children to be allowed to continue using the megaphone, so they explained that continued use of the megaphone could result in a fine or, in an extreme situation, arrest.
READ MORE: Lemonade stands spring up in Alberta to support Edmonton Children’s Hospital
“Nobody wanted to get to the point,” the email reads. “They just asked several times to stop using the megaphone, for the peace and respect of the neighborhood and the good relations between the residents of the area.” They explained the powers, responsibilities and procedures of the SPVM to stop this type of violations.
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She said the first officers on the scene lacked common sense and she felt they were harassing her. She said the megaphone was only used a few times an hour and the reaction was completely blown out of proportion.
The boys raised over $2,000 for MS as the community rallied around their lemonade stand.
Police did not respond to the woman’s request for an apology in their statement.
They invited her to file a formal complaint.
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