CANADIAN HIGH COURT TO HEAR ESCALATOR HANDRAIL CASE

The Supreme Court of Canada will hear the case of a woman who was ticketed, fined and arrested for refusing to hold an escalator handrail in a Société de Transport de Montréal (STM) station in Laval, Canada, in 2009, the Montreal Gazette reports. The woman contended a pictogram advising passengers to hold the handrail was a warning, rather than a legal obligation. After being acquitted of disobeying the pictogram and obstructing the work of an officer (she refused to identify herself), she filed a CAD$45,000 ($US34,090) lawsuit against STM in 2012. The Quebec court rejected the lawsuit, but one of the judges agreed with the woman's assertion the pictogram represented a warning, noting the woman's reactions “only aggravated the situation.”