A former local resident faces a charge of assaulting a peace officer related to an incident in Hamilton.
Angela Vos, who used to live in Tiny Township, is scheduled to appear in court April 25 at 10 a.m., according to Hamilton Police Service spokeswoman Jackie Penman.
“Angela Vos was arrested on April 4 for Assault Peace Officer after an incident on March 25 at City Hall involving a bylaw officer,” Penman wrote in an email.
“The case is now before the courts.”
Vos said there were police officers in the area at the time of the alleged assault, but no charges were laid at the time "because nothing happened."
"No touching had transpired," she said. "And most certainly nothing aggressive to be escalated and considered assault."
Vos said one the bylaw officers was putting up trespass notices at an encampment she organized when one of the bylaw officers screamed out.
"'Did she hit you?' And all of us screamed back no," Vos said. "A week later, police went to my house in Tiny and surrounded the land. And then they came to my house in Hamilton and arrested and released me at the same time."
According to media reports out of Hamilton, Vos had been staying in a tent outside Hamilton's city hall since February as part of a protest to pressure elected officials to address the affordable housing crisis.
"I'm frustrated and I'm angry," Vos told CBC News last month at the encampment, which eventually grew to more than 80 people living in tents.
Vos, who now lives in Hamilton, left her home to live in a tent, after becoming frustrated while watching a Hamilton council debate.
According to CBC, councillors were divided on whether to allow affordable housing to be built on a city-owned parking lot and in a split vote, defeated staff's proposal. Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath has since said she will use her "strong mayor powers" to overturn the council vote and allow affordable housing to be built on the parking lot.
Vos addresses the assault charge on her social media account, responding to a supporter who calls the charge an “egregious” waste of taxpayer money and court time.
“Especially cause now I’ll be challenging him writing my complaint (to the city of Hamilton). If I can charge him back this malicious behaviour will not go undocumented! He can’t handle his job and will harm others because he accepted a job he couldn’t handle!”
Last year, Vos filed a $1.5-million lawsuit against the province and two doctors relating to her son’s overdose death in a Lindsay jail.
Jordan Sheard, who grew up in Barrie and also lived in Springwater and Orillia, died of an overdose at the Central East Correctional Centre, where he was sent after threatening to kill himself.
He had hidden a large quantity of fentanyl in his body before arriving at the correctional centre.
Filed at the Superior Court of Justice in London, the lawsuit seeks general damages of $1 million for Vos, in her role as administrator of Sheard’s estate, as well as “special damages in an amount to be determined with particulars to be provided prior to trial,” along with a declaration of infringement of Sheard’s rights and freedoms guaranteed under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and damages for “negligence, wrongful behaviour, misconduct, wrongdoing, breach of trust and breach of other duties.”
And for Vos, personally, the lawsuit seeks $400,000 in damages pursuant to the Family Law Act and $100,000 in damages “for negligent infliction of nervous shock.”
Besides the province, the lawsuit targets “Dr. John Doe and Dr. Jane Doe,” the identities of whom are unknown at this time, who it notes were at all material times health-care or correctional facility physicians who were responsible for and were involved in the provision of Sheard’s medical treatment and care.
