Taking pictures in public should not be a crime, luckily, in Canada… it is not.

Burnaby RCMP say Markiewicz was arrested for causing a disturbance, but was not charged. He has, however, been banned from Metrotown mall for six months.

The teen’s father, Zbigniew Markiewicz, said mall security and police completely over-reacted.

“There’s no real threat to anyone by having a camera and snapping a picture,” he said.

Lawyer Douglas King, of Pivot Legal in Vancouver, agrees, saying that private mall security guards and police have no right to try to seize someone’s camera or demand that photos be deleted — even on private property.

The only thing I find ‘disturbing’ here is that these security guards don’t know the law, and the police don’t seem to care.