Nursing Student Faces $1,000 City Fine for Garbage in a Public Bin — But Who Put It There?
A Georgian College student says she never dumped the box that got her charged under Owen Sound's bylaw. With the Mayor and City Manager declining to weigh in, her only way to fight it is a courtroom.
A Georgian College nursing student is facing a provincial offence charge and a $1,000 fine after a parcel bearing her name was found inside a public garbage receptacle in Owen Sound. She says she never put it there; that it was taken from behind her home.
The student, whom Owen Sound Current is identifying only as Sherry and whose address we are withholding, was charged under section 10.5.1 of the City’s Waste Management By-law.
The provision, added to the by-law in 2017, prohibits depositing household waste “into a garbage or recycling receptacle that is located on Public Property.” It targets the use of public bins — the receptacles in parks, on sidewalks and at City facilities — to dispose of household trash.
What the records show
Charging documents Sherry provided Owen Sound Current show a by-law enforcement officer searched a public garbage receptacle in downtown Owen Sound on May 26 and found an Amazon parcel inside. The officer’s notes classify the flattened cardboard box as household waste under the by-law and record that it carried identification for Sherry.
A Part III summons, which requires an appearance in court, was issued. The disclosure package includes photographs of the box in the bin and a close-up of a shipping label bearing her name and address.
The records contain no indication that the officer contacted Sherry before laying the charge. Sherry says he did not.
“I never imagined that putting my household garbage and recycling at the curb on collection day could lead to a court summons,” she told Owen Sound Current.
‘I did not place it there’
“I maintain that I did not place it there,” Sherry wrote in a plea to the Mayor, Council, and City Manager. “I also did not permit any person to place it there.”
She says the parcel was taken from the back of her home, out of view of the home security camera, and that she has footage of people going through waste set out at her address on other collection days.
Going through or removing waste set out for pickup is itself prohibited under the same by-law: section 1.15 bars any person from picking over, disturbing, removing or scattering material placed out for collection.
On Friday morning, she told the Current of her frustration at the charge moving forward with seemingly little recourse for a resident who feels it was laid in error. As of then, weeks of outreach to the Mayor, by-law enforcement and police had gone unanswered, she said.
According to Sherry, when she brought her concerns to the prosecution, she was told that to have the charge withdrawn she would need to provide video of someone removing that specific box from her property — footage she does not have.
A guilty plea, or a day in court
The City of Owen Sound’s by-law prosecutions are handled by a paralegal professional corporation. In a without-prejudice early resolution offer dated June 11, the prosecutor set out Sherry’s options: plead guilty for a $500 fine plus costs, or go to trial, where on conviction the prosecution would seek the $1,000 set fine plus costs.
Either way, Sherry — who says fighting the charge means hiring a representative and missing school — must appear in court. Her next date is July 27.
The cover letter enclosing that offer, sent to Sherry’s address, opens “Dear Stacey Scaman,” a name she says she does not recognize.
The question the by-law doesn’t answer
Section 10.5.1 makes it an offence to deposit household waste in a public bin. What the by-law does not address is how enforcement decides that waste found in a public bin was put there by the person whose name is on it, rather than carried there by someone else — a possibility the by-law itself contemplates when it bars others from removing waste set out for collection.
Owen Sound Current put that question to the Mayor, Council and City Manager, along with these others:
whether section 10.5.1 is meant to reach residents whose discarded packaging ends up in a public bin
what enforcement does in the course of the investigation to establish who deposited the waste in a public bin
whether the officer sought Sherry’s account or footage before charging her
and whether any remedy exists short of a contested trial.
None of those questions asked the City to intervene in the prosecution. They went to what the by-law is meant to reach, how enforcement decides who is responsible, and what recourse a resident has.
Neither the Mayor nor the City Manager addressed them.
City Manager Tim Simmonds replied to Sherry on July 3: “While I understand the outcome you are seeking, it would not be appropriate for me to become involved in or influence the enforcement of the City's by-laws or decisions related to a matter that is before the courts,” he wrote. “Those responsibilities need to remain independent and free from interference by my office.”
Mayor Ian Boddy responded to Owen Sound Current the same afternoon. “It would not be appropriate for a member of council to be exerting political pressure on staff to interfere in a criminal or quasi criminal prosecution,” he wrote. “The matter is in the control of the prosecutor. They have knowledge of the evidence and law.” He said it would therefore be inappropriate to comment further.
The charge is a by-law offence prosecuted under the Provincial Offences Act, making a quasi-criminal matter — not a criminal one.
It rests on the City's own by-law, was laid by a City by-law enforcement officer, and is prosecuted by a firm the City retains. Neither Simmonds nor Boddy identified any way for a resident who believes a charge was laid in error to resolve it outside a courtroom.
The by-law provides an appeal only for waste-removal invoices, heard by a City committee — not for a charge itself.
Sherry, who came to Owen Sound for Georgian College’s nursing program and says she had hoped to stay, says the experience has left her “on edge” and reconsidering whether to remain after graduation.
“I have to miss school for this and to think, we are already short on nurses,” she added.
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We need people like Sherry here-- people who will stand up for what's right.