Canadian City Bans Singing on Public Buses
The wheels on the bus may go round and round but don't you dare sing about it in Winnipeg. The capital city of the Canadian province of Manitoba—home to more than half of the province's population—has just made singing or "offering a live musical performance" on public buses a crime.
Lawbreaking crooners will face a $100 fine plus court costs for their transgressions. Winnipeg's city council approved the rule Wednesday as part of a new transit bylaw which also makes it a crime to loiter at a bus stop for more than 90 minutes and prohibits playing a musical instrument, carrying a firearm, urinating, unicycling, or spray-painting on a city bus.
Impromptu jam sessions do happen on Canadian buses. The city "saw numerous musical performances on buses as part of (music festival) JunoFest," according to CBC News, and in 2007 the White Stripes made an unscheduled appearance on a city bus,. Apparently, everyone survived.
Winnipeg was named a "Cultural Capital of Canada" in 2010. It's a designation the Canadian government gave to 42 communities in less than 10 years before cancelling the program to "improve the efficiency and effectiveness of its programs and operations."
H/T Mat Vaillancourt
