Man acquitted of harassing borough mayor barred from contact in separate court decision

A Montreal man has been barred from attending city council meetingsafter he broke a court order not to approachCte-des-NeigesNotre-Dame-de-GrceMayor Sue Montgomery.

The man, Robert Edgar, who also goes by Robin, was acquitted of criminally harassing Montgomeryafter standing trial earlier this year.

AQuebec Court judge ruled in June that whileEdgar was harassingMontgomery, it did not meet the level of criminal harassment becauseshe could not prove that she feared for her safety.

But Monday afternoona different judge, Dennis Galiatsatos,ruled Edgar still represents a possible threat to Montgomery and ordered him to no longer attend either boroughor city council meetings.

Edgar was also banned from having any contact with Montgomery. He can't be anywhere near her home nor is he allowed to tagMontgomery on social media.

The conditions cover a three-year period.

Edgar brokea pre-existing restraining order in March, before the trial, when he attended a city council meeting where Montgomery was present. His court appearance Monday was for breaking that order.

• AS IT HAPPENS|'I live with fear,' says Montreal borough mayor whose harasser was acquitted of criminal charges

Despite the trial ruling, Galiatsatos said Monday that Edgar's actions were having a psychological impact on Montgomery, noting she was both"emotionally exhausted" and "psychologically depleted."

Galiastatos also said that higher courts have already determined there is "no inviolable rule on how victims should behave" and that the "acquittal does not reduce this court's safety concerns."

He added that Edgar's breach of conditions was "alarming" and that it's clear he's "irrationally obsessed" with Montgomery, demonstrating a "troubling level of stubbornness and fixation."

'Come on. Twenty years'

In an interview in June,Montgomery described the psychological toll that Edgar's actions were taking.

"I live with fear. I live with anger. I live with frustration. I don't know what it's going to take to make this stop," she told As It Happenshost Carol Off.

"Come on. Twenty years. I think any reasonable person would agree that this has gone on too long and needs to stop."

Edgar first met Montgomery 20 years ago while he was protesting outside her church in Montreal.

She was a reporter for the Montreal Gazette at the time andEdgar asked her to write a story about why he had been expelled from theUnitarian Church.

She looked into it, she said, but found no merit to his allegations.

"He would not take no for an answer and kept asking me to write about it despite my journalistic right to decide whether or not something is a story," she said in the interview.

Montgomery says Edgar has been contacting her ever since.His efforts increasing after she co-created the Twitter hashtag#BeenRapedNeverReportedin 2014.

According to the court ruling, that's whenEdgar accused Montgomery of "being complicit in a coverup of sexual abuse" at the church, and"the episodes of harassment ... escalated."

Montgomery has filed a request to appeal the trial judge's decision. She said Monday she was incredibly relieved by Galiatsatos's decision, adding it felt like a vindication.

Edgar's lawyers had argued that he should still be allowed to attend council meetings, as is any other citizen. But Galiatsatos said "civil liberties must sometimes yield to the protection of the victim."