VANCOUVER – Vancouver crooner Babe Coal is still singing the blues, even after winning a partial court battle over a local noise bylaw.
The City of North Vancouver slapped the singer-songwriter, known in real life as Megan Regehr, with six bylaw notices for making a prohibited noise with equipment, specifically a 10-watt amplifier, at a civic plaza in the summer of 2012.
Undeterred, Regehr took her next performance to the Supreme Court of B.C., where she launched two constitutional challenges of those rules.
Judge Heather Holmes decided not to determine the constitutionality of the cases but set aside the bylaw notices.
She says when the bylaw is properly interpreted, the sounds coming from voice amplifiers are only noise when they amplify the spoken voice, not the singing voice.
Regehr says on her Facebook page she is saddened by the impact the case has had on her career and vows to elevate her constitutional case to a higher court in her fight for justice.
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