Tommy Townsend

Arborist found not guilty

Local Journalism Initiative / The Low Down / April 17, 2025 / Arborist, Justice Joanne Cousineau, MRC des Collines, Tommy Townsend, Trevor Greenway, Wakefield

By Trevor Greenway

Tommy Townsend has an ear-to-ear smile as he sits on the back of his work truck outside of the MRC des Collines courthouse in Chelsea.

He’s smiling because a judge just threw out his case in which he was accused of wandering around the village of Wakefield with a knife two summers ago.

“It feels good,” says Townsend, minutes after Justice Joanne Cousineau found him not guilty of a bylaw infraction April 10. “I’m glad someone had some common sense. I don’t feel the police had any common sense on that day, personally, and I don’t think the prosecutor had too much either, but the judge did…I was not wandering around. I was in my vehicle, as she stated. It’s good to get some closure.”

Townsend was arrested at gunpoint in front of his two children by MRC des Collines officers on Aug. 18, 2023, after a witness called police and reported that a man wielding a knife was wandering around the village.

During the trial, the Wakefield single dad told the judge that he had just returned from a quick job as an arborist and had his two daughters in the car, as they were going to buy shoes at Giant Tiger. He was suddenly pulled over by police, who drew their guns and ordered Townsend onto the ground in front of Kaffe 1870.

He was later released and was not charged criminally. Weeks later, police fined him for a bylaw infraction for carrying a knife without a reasonable excuse.

That was the crux of the trial, as Cousineau needed to determine whether or not Townsend had a reasonable excuse to carry a knife. In her decision, she said that the police, and Crown prosecutor Olivier Gosselin failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Townsend was “wandering around.”

In August 2023 Townsend told the Low Down that he was in Wakefield searching for a missing Low man, Simeon Wapachee, and was dressed in a safety vest as he showed passersby Wapachee’s photo. He had several knives sheathed to his belt. This was not mentioned in court.

“When I have two contradictory versions, I don’t need to see who spoke the truth. I wasn’t there,” said Cousineau. “[The Crown] has a burden of proving every element of the infraction beyond reasonable doubt.”

She continued: “Nobody in that file came and testified saying that they saw you wandering around with a knife. You were in your vehicle. That’s not public property,” she said to Townsend during her decision. “It’s maybe not the best move to be driving around with a knife on you when you’re with your daughters, but who am I to judge on that? You were arrested, and the police say they saw you in your vehicle. Now, do I believe your version? Not so much, but the long and the short of it is, the police did not see you wandering around, and that is the infraction in this bylaw.”

Townsend submitted photos of his work truck to prove he was an arborist.

“If you’re an arborist, you have an excuse,” she said. “The part of you having [a knife] on you is a little disturbing. The long and short of it is that you were in your vehicle; you were not wandering around on the street. If the people saw you, they should have come and testified, which they did not.”

Townsend said he is happy to get “closure,” but he hesitated when asked if he felt justice was served.

“I feel this whole thing was unjustified to begin with,” he said, adding that the traumatic event still affects his daughters. At the time of the arrest, his daughters were six and 11.

He said his youngest has nightmares about gun violence, and his oldest is now afraid of police officers.

“The most tragic part of this unnecessary event is that two small children have no faith or trust in police officers anymore.”

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Low arborist arrested at gunpoint awaits court verdict

Local Journalism Initiative / The Low Down / March 10, 2025 / La Pêche, Low, Tommy Townsend

By Trevor Greenway
Local Journalism Initiative

Tommy Townsend will have to wait a couple more months to find out if a judge will throw out his fines for carrying a knife in public.

The arborist from Low was arrested at gunpoint in front of his two children by MRC des Collines officers on Aug. 18, 2023, after a witness called police and reported that a man wielding a knife was wandering around the village.

“I am an arborist, I work in the bush, and it was a pruning blade, not a machete,” Townsend told a judge at trial on Feb. 19 in Chelsea. “I was not wandering around – I was in my truck when the police pulled me out at gunpoint with my children in the truck watching.”

Townsend submitted a copy of the Aug. 23, 2023, Low Down newspaper as an exhibit, which shows a photo of two police officers drawing their guns while Townsend is on the ground behind his truck.

In August 2023, Townsend told the Low Down that he was in Wakefield searching for missing Low man Simeon Wapachee and was dressed in a safety vest as he showed passersby Wapachee’s photo. He had several knives that were sheathed on his belt. This was not mentioned in court.

Police told the Low Down in 2023 that they got a call from a concerned citizen reporting that a suspicious man wielding a knife was wandering the village. Police later apprehended Townsend while he was in his work truck.

In court, Townsend told Judge Joanne Cousineau that he was in Wakefield on the morning of Aug. 18 with his daughters to get them new shoes at Giant Tiger. Townsend testified he had just finished pruning an apple tree near Chemin Mahon and was going shopping when he was pulled over.

Crown prosecutor Olivier Gosselin questioned why Townsend had his kids with him and if he was working on the day of Aug. 18. “Explain to me, if you said you were working, how come you were working when your children are in your car?” asked Gosselin.

“It’s my own private business,” Townsend responded. “A lot of my clients are friends or people that I know, and they don’t have a problem with it. I also knew that it was an hour job, and then we were going to Giant Tiger to buy the shoes.”

Gosselin pressed Townsend further, asking him for the specific address of the job and whether Townsend’s client was okay with his children being present. The single dad said he often brings his kids to small jobs, and it’s not been a problem.

When Townsend was pulled over, he explained that he had several knives on his belt, which he uses in his arborist work, but added that they were all sheathed in protective covers when cops detained him. When asked why the knives were still on his belt, he told the prosecutor that he leaves them in the belt while driving but puts them away in a locked compartment when he leaves his truck. He said he had planned to do the same when he got to Giant Tiger but was pulled over after police received reports of a suspicious man wandering the village with a knife.

“The equipment is with me only for relative work,” he said. “As mentioned, I take it all out before I get out of the vehicle. I hadn’t at that time, so here we are today.”

In his closing arguments, Gosselin told the judge that he has “doubt that Mr. Townsend was really working on that day.”

“My problem is more in regards to why we are pruning apple trees in August,” said Gosselin. “We all love apples; you collect them in the fall, not August. Then, from his own testimony, the defendant said it’s not the best time of the year to do so, but for some reason, he did.”

Townsend agreed that spring is the best time to prune fruit trees but added that the client wanted it done then, and he wouldn’t say no to a job. Gosselin asserted that Townsend should have removed and stored the knives properly before getting into his truck. “Anything could have happened. He could have went to buy something else, and if he did, he has his knife on him.”

Justice Cousineau quoted the La Pêche bylaw that bans residents from carrying weapons in public “without a reasonable excuse.”

“That is the question I need to answer,” she said. “Did he have a reasonable excuse? He had it in his possession, he’s admitted to it, and he explains his reasonable excuse. The wandering around part, I need to look into that.”

Cousineau told the court that she needed to take the case “under advisory,” meaning that she needed more time to study the law and look at potential precedent cases before deciding on Townsend’s case.

“I will tell you that many, many files regarding knives, it was basically kids who have no business having a knife,” she said.

Cousineau will render her decision on April 10.

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