Clown is sueing the Central Library over ban
The Calgary Public Library has been served with a lawsuit for banning professional clown Professor Giggles. Giggles a.k.a. Caren Wright is suing the library for $30000 stemming from a June 23 2009 incident in which Giggles was ejected from The Central Library for alleged abusive behaviour towards staff and banned indefinitely from returning.
Giggles says she has been battling the library system for over three years to lift the ban which she believes was an overreaction to her behaviour.
Giggles claims that while using a library computer two employees were rude to her and refused to leave her alone to work. She says their behaviour compelled her to cancel a booking she had made to rent one of the library’s rooms for her clown camp following which she says she had an anxiety attack and was ultimately escorted out by security staff.
Since that day Professor Giggles admits to having phoned library staff repeatedly to discuss the ban. When her calls would not be transferred to library director Gerry Meek she says she pretended to be calling about making a donation to the library in order to speak with him directly. Following that she phoned Meek’s home and asked his wife why he wouldn’t communicate. Library lawyers have repeatedly told her she must stop.
In “earlier correspondence we indicated that continued harassment of library personnel would be met with strong legal action…. You have in the last number of days made contact with a number of branches and employees…. It occurs to us that perhaps you are simply unaware of the appropriate avenues for redress…. The bylaws of the library allow for an appeal process; you are at liberty to use it” states one attorney letter to Giggles.
She didn’t and there is now a restraining order forbidding her from contacting library personnel specifically the director his personal assistant and the two staff members involved in the June 2009 incident.
Giggle’s lawsuit is claiming $5000 for emotional distress and $25000 “to compensate for services I will have to pay for over the next ‘indefinite’ amount of years that I would have otherwise received services free of charge or at a very low cost at the library” plus court costs and as yet undetermined punitive damages. She also demands a letter of apology and a guarantee she will never be banned again.
“How ridiculously absurd is it to ban anyone indefinitely from a public library of all places for calling a staff member ‘incompetent’?” Giggles asks.
“In terms of borrowing a book the library is a monopoly and subsequently seems to be running a non-profit organization like a dictatorship. Even murderers qualify for parole and during a criminal’s incarceration they have access to the prison library. And once released they can go to the Calgary Public Library…. Even if that citizen may have done something deemed wrong and worthy of banning there should be limits in terms of time or location. Anyone can have a bad day a lapse in judgment. Everyone deserves at minimum a second third and fourth chance” she says.
A Calgary Public Library spokesperson says the organization cannot discuss this developing legal matter.
