Man arrested at Remembrance Day service was also cuffed at 2023 Christmas event

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The arrest of a man amid a disturbance at a Sarnia Remembrance Day ceremony, one an outlaw biker club has since decried as unconstitutional, comes about a year after he was arrested at a community Christmas event in Point Edward following reports of kids being chased by a man with weapons.

And one of the two new charges Arthur Shura, 64, is facing from the Nov. 11 wreath-laying altercation alleges he breached the peace bond he signed in August in exchange for the assault with a weapon charge from last year’s Christmas In The Village event being dropped.

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Lambton OPP said they were called to the Christmas street party on Dec. 2 to investigate a possible assault. Officers were told several young people were chased by a person with a baseball bat on Monk Street that Saturday morning. The same person brandished a knife while interacting with the kids, police said at the time.

Shura, a Point Edward resident, was charged with assault with a weapon, they said.

But the charge was dropped in August by the Lambton Crown attorney’s office after Shura agreed to sign a peace bond. The one-year, common-law bond orders Shura to keep the peace and be of good behaviour and bans him from contacting the complainant, going where he lives, works or goes to school, and from weapons.

A common-law peace bond can be imposed when the court is satisfied the complainant has a reasonable apprehension the accused may breach the peace, according to a law firm’s website.

It does not mean the accused has committed a criminal offence and it is not a criminal conviction, it adds.

“There was an interaction between two male parties . . . that caused (the complainant) to fear for his safety at that time,” assistant Crown attorney Sarah Carmody explained to the judge in August.

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Justice Mark Poland agreed to impose the bond and, at the request of Shura’s lawyer, included an exception to the weapons ban for large knives while working as a chef.

“This issue arose in this instance because he had a large knife on his belt that apparently caused the complainant to feel threatened,” lawyer Brenda Sandulak said at the time. “Therefore, we are asking for an exclusion so that there are no misunderstandings about him carrying large knives for work purposes.”

Shura and his wife, Karen, used to run the now-shuttered Ozwelds Diner Co., a motorcycle-themed eatery in Sarnia, according to 2021 profiles in Morton Food Service and Hashtag Local Sarnia-Lambton.

Karen Pelkie, 46, was also arrested last Monday and charged with causing a disturbance and resisting arrest. Shura, who appears to be a member of the Outlaws motorcycle club based on pictures posted to Facebook, was charged with causing a disturbance in addition to breaching a court order. They’re both due back in court on Dec. 12.

An Outlaws motorcycle club member was arrested by tactical officers during Monday’s ceremony at Veterans Park in Sarnia after trying to lay a black wreath at the Cenotaph. Police said they didn’t register, refused to leave when asked, and caused a disturbance by using foul language.

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The incident, most of it captured on video, shocked onlookers, the city’s mayor and police chief and sparked a debate on social media about whether Sarnia police or the bikers were in the wrong. The Outlaws took the rare step of releasing a formal statement last week, saying it was unfairly targeted and denied the right to honour veterans.

But Ontario’s top biker cop said the club chose to break the rules at the ceremony and was seeking attention by wearing their patches to the event.

With files from Dale Carruthers and Paul Morden

tbridge@postmedia.com

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