The son of an off-duty firefighter was found guilty yesterday of resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer during a St. Patrick’s Day donnybrook that was viewed hundreds of thousands of times on YouTube.
Grant Mason, 21, was handed a one-year conditional discharge that includes 40 hours of community service and a written apology to the three Vancouver police officers who arrested him.
His father, firefighter Curtis Mason, was found not guilty of resisting arrest in the March 17, 2006, incident, which began after a car accident in downtown Vancouver.
A tourist from Washington State captured the fight on video and posted it on the video-sharing website YouTube. The video has been viewed more than 220,000 times.
In his judgment, Provincial Judge Gregory Rideout said Grant was intoxicated and said the man’s testimony to the contrary was “self-serving and unbelievable.”
“He was looking for a fight; he found a fight; his choice of whom to fight clearly demonstrated poor judgment,” said Rideout, who noted Mason’s age and lack of criminal record when sentencing.
Rideout chastised both Masons. He scolded Grant for not showing respect to police, and told Curtis that his actions — he allegedly spat on a fellow firefighter who was administering first aid to him — were “disgraceful” and “unbecoming of a firefighter.”
Outside the provincial courthouse, Curtis said he respected the judge’s decision and said being in the public eye throughout the ordeal was “foreign and unfortunate.”
–jeff.hodson@metronews.ca
