Yukon Artist is “Citizen Arrested” by Local MP
Carrie Boles, a Yukon artist, found herself in a strange situation one night after deciding to redecorate a Conservative candidate’s election signs.
In a letter to the Yukon News, Boles describes her decision to go on a “quixotic adventure” to redecorate the blue Conservative signs by cutting MP Ryan Leef’s name out of each one.
“I just finished “altering” my third small sign…when I heard a rumble in the bushes behind me,” she wrote. Two men emerged from the trees, one dressed in black and the other in camouflage, and wrestled her to the ground while shouting “Citizen’s arrest, citizen’s arrest, you are being placed under citizen’s arrest!”
Boles stated that she was handcuffed and left lying on the ground when she recognized Leef’s voice after he made a phone call to the RCMP.
She went on to describe the encounter in a CBC North interview, asking Leef “What are you doing sir, out here at 11 o’clock at night in the pouring rain, protecting your campaign signs?”
Leef defended himself in a local radio station interview, stating he did nothing wrong by arresting a vandal. He explained he had been out replacing already defaced signs when he spotted Boles vandalizing a new one.
“I have the knowledge of law, and the training to safely affect an arrest like that,” he said, pointing to his two decades of law enforcement experience prior to becoming an MP.
No charges have been laid, as of yet, and Leef encourages Boles to channel her Conservative party frustrations by voting in the upcoming election. Boles agreed, writing “I will vote this October for the first time in well over a decade."
Image Courtesy of Adobe Stock