How much is a free hug worth?
Exactly $101 if you're the one giving it, according to at least one transit enforcement officer in Montreal.
A man in a "free hugs" T-shirt was handed the $101 fine last week after he was stopped for offering the friendly gesture to passersby at the Jean-Talon Metro station. The Societe de transport de Montreal (STM) has since withdrawn the fine, but the man is still being warned to stop offering free hugs in the subway system.
“We just stand there, arms open and people come by themselves,” Tommy Boucher, who has been offering hugs for about a year, told CTV Montreal.
“It's kind of really free and open… I remember one time I was at Berri station, I met a woman, she cried on my shoulder for 15 minutes.”
In a blog post about the initial incident, Boucher says that on Nov. 22, transit officers asked him to show a permit for his activity.
“The question surprised me,” Boucher told CTV Montreal.
Boucher says he didn't have a permit, so an officer flipped through his bylaw booklet "until he figured out something could stick with what I was doing," the blog post read.
A photo of Boucher's ticket shows he was fined under STM bylaw R-036, section VIII, subsection II, rule 17, which states: "In a metro station, after obtaining the authorization of the Societe, it is permitted to offer for sale or lease services or merchandise, or to exhibit or distribute such services or merchandise, subject to the other restrictions in the present bylaw. Under any other circumstance or in any other place, such activities are forbidden."
According to Boucher's blog, the officer told him he can wear the shirt, "but I can't open my arms."
An STM spokesperson told CTVNews.ca that it has decided to withdraw the fine and let Boucher off with a warning.
"The STM reiterates that this type of activity must be held outside turnstiles for fluidity and safety reasons," the spokesperson said in a statement translated from French.
Boucher questioned the logic behind the ticket.
"I know these guys have the mission to keep the peace in the subway," he wrote on his blog. "But when they give a ticket to those who actually are in peace, where is the world going?"
Boucher is happy with the outcome and plans to keep spreading love through hugs – but says he’ll now do it outside the Metro’s turnstiles.
With files from CTV Montreal
