A Kingston city councillor has been identified as the man who police said blocked a Kingston Transit bus using his bicycle and child in June.

Kingston Police confirmed on Friday that Peter Stroud has been given an Aug. 15 court date to face charges of causing a disturbance and obstructing property under $5,000. The charges have not been proven in court.

“I have no further comment at this time,” Sydenham District Coun. Stroud wrote in an email to the Whig-Standard when asked about the incident. Stroud, a vocal proponent of active transportation who is in his second term as councillor, asked to not be contacted again until the matter is settled in court.

The charges stem from an incident that Kingston Police said started on June 23 at about 2:45 p.m. Police reported in a news release sent out on July 11 that a Kingston Transit bus was in the area of Brock and Alfred streets when its driver saw a man on a bicycle trying to flag her down. The driver had already merged back into traffic and could not safely pull back over to pick up the man, police said.

The driver continued on the regularly scheduled route until she came to a stop at a red light at the intersection of Bath Road and Sir John A. Macdonald Boulevard. According to police, she then saw the same man approach her bus from the rear, ride alongside it, then come to a stop in front.

Police wrote in their release that the man then took a child, who had been a passenger on the bike, off and place it on the ground. According to police, the man then used his bike to block the bus and started yelling at the driver and hitting the front window. The man continued the disturbance for a number of minutes, taking photos of the driver and delaying her from continuing the route, accounted police.

“Passengers on the bus became concerned in regards to the disturbance as well as the welfare of the child who had been left in traffic,” the police news release said.

The man then stopped, picked up the child, put it back on the bike and rode westward on Sir John A. Macdonald Boulevard, running a red light as he did, police allege. Police said that the man found the bus once again, farther down Bath Road, and delayed it again.

City police said the incident was reported to them the next day. Const. Ash Gutheinz said investigators examined the bus’s surveillance footage and were able to identify the man.

The Whig-Standard has requested a copy of the surveillance footage under the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, as its initial request was denied by Kingston city clerk John Bolognone “because it’s part of a law enforcement matter and it’s before the courts.”

Police said they reached out to the man on June 24 but he refused to meet with them. He eventually turned himself in on July 10, police said. After the charges were laid, he was released with the August court.

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