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Image Credit: ADOBE STOCK

Packing a can of bear spray is comforting whether a person is out in the forest where the furry creatures live or walking downtown where there can be a different type of wild creature.

The increasing cases of illegal firing of the harsh spray at or near people has caused the City of Kelowna and RCMP to look at tough new regulations.

After what UBC Okanagan student Alexander Roizman and his date went through recently it makes sense.

READ MORE: Sexual material offences driving Kelowna to three-peat as crime capital of Canada

They were at an art studio in downtown Kelowna, waiting for a performance to start, when an unexpected stranger entered the room with a nasty surprise.

“We were talking and from behind us we heard a girl say: ’Are you ignoring me again?’” Roizman told iNFOnews.ca.

“We were both kind of confused. We looked back and had no idea who she was and she just sprayed bear spray all over our faces.”

Roizman and his date were alone in the small studio space. They ran out as the spray filled the room.

“It was extremely painful, especially if you close your eyes,” he said. “I closed my eyes for a second afterwards and it’s more painful because then you need to force yourself to open them again. Breathing was bad too.”

They headed to the hospital but the worst pain came when he eventually made it home.

“I recommend people don’t take a shower if they get bear sprayed because I did and all the bear spray that was in my face went and burned all over my skin,” Roizman said. “So I don’t recommend showering, I think that’s the most painful part.”

Earlier this month, Kelowna RCMP Supt. Kara Triance reported to city council that assaults causing bodily last year were up 16% from 2022. Of the assaults, 28% involved bear spray as the weapon.

READ MORE: Customers bear sprayed at downtown Kelowna restaurant

The City of Vancouver passed a bylaw last year requiring bear spray to be locked up in stores, sold only to those showing ID who are over the age of 19, and keeping that information on file and ready for inspection for a year. The bylaw came into effect in March of 2023.

That follows 3,000 cases of assault with bear spray in that city from 2018 to 2022.

“City staff are in the preliminary stages of reviewing the Vancouver bylaw to assess the extent to which such an approach is viable and necessary in Kelowna,” Kelowna RCMP spokesperson Ryan Watters said in an email to iNFOnews.ca.

Last fall, Vancouver Police Department officers “disguised themselves as shoppers” and investigated 28 sales outlets, finding 10 were violating the bear spray bylaw by not recording sales and keeping records. Jointly they were fined a total of $20,000.

Roizman thinks bear spray can be dangerous when in the wrong hands and should be regulated.

“I do think that it’s super dangerous to use it for self-defence and I think they shouldn’t allow people to use it for defence,” he said. “But I don’t think that banning it is the solution. I think, maybe, the solution is to find a way to regulate who they sell to or do a background check when you’re buying this type of thing.”

Roizman had a similar experience back in 2019 in his home country of Chile when he was tear-gassed by police.

“Police threw a tear gas grenade down into the subway while I was there, so the whole station got filled with tear gas,” he said. “It makes you cry and you cannot breathe properly but I definitely think bear spray is worse.

“It’s sticky. With tear gas, you can put a lime or lemon under your eyes and you wait half an hour for the effects of the gas to go away and you’re OK, but bear spray stays with you.”

After the Kelowna attack, Roizman discovered that the woman who had bear-sprayed him was in treatment for anger management issues, and had displayed erratic and aggressive behaviour in the past.

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