Jehovah’s Witness Jailed For Refusing to Pay Fine

When Canada entered World War Ⅱ one of the steps they took at home was to ban the pacifist sect of Jehovah’s Witnesses. You know, because the fate of the free world was at stake or something. (Article from this date in 1940.)

Railway Employe Gets Thirty Days

Convicted of Belonging to Sect Banned by Government.

Fort Erie, Ont. (U.P.) — Edward J. Bambridge, 45-year-old Canadian railroad employe, was under a 30-day jail sentence today after being found guilty of belonging to the Jehovah Witnesses sect, banned by the dominion under the Canadian Defense act.

Police Magistrate John B. Hopkins found Bambridge guilty of the charge last night and gave him the choice of paying a $57 fine or serving 30 days in jail. As members of the sect refuse to pay fines, Defense Counsel J.L. Cohen, of Toronto, announced an appeal would be taken to a higher court in an effort to secure a reversal of the verdict.

Bambridge was arrested by the Canadian Royal Mounted police. His case was believed to be the first of its kind in the Niagra peninsula area.

It was the note about “members of the sect refuse to pay fines” that most interested me here. I hadn’t heard that before.

Some bits and pieces from here and there:

• As I’ve mentioned before, fraudsters have been filing tax returns that claim bogus refunds by stealing the identities of other people. This has turned into a thriving industry in some areas, particularly parts of Florida, with millions of such returns being filed. This story shows some of the fall-out for the people whose identities were stolen, and for the IRS. “Frustrated identity theft victims are swamping the Plantation office of the Internal Revenue Service, forming long lines to wait hours to speak to a representative — with one woman complaining of being told to come back at 4:30 a.m. to begin a new wait.…”
• Here’s some footage of the protests accompanying the Household Tax strike in Fál Carrach, Ireland and interviews with some of the resisters.