Here's how it should have gone:

photographer waiting for good lighting

Embassy doesn't feel nervous because they have at least one iota of experience observing humans

Another pretty good scenario:

photographer waiting for good lighting

Embassy: Hey why are you hanging around out there?

Photographer: oh I'm just writing for the light to good for this very common tourist photo opportunity

Embassy: okay, but please don't take photos of us

Here's another situation:

photographer waiting for good lighting

Police: Hey we got a call that you're loitering here, and it's making people nervous. What are you up to?

Photographer: I don't think I need to explain myself, it's pretty obvious I'm trying to get a good photo of the very common tourist photo opportunity.

Police: okay just make sure you're not blocking the sidewalk.

Here's a thought: if the Americans feel so insecure they can fuck off back to the USA where they can be secure.

If they have enough police (not by-law officers) to be patrolling the area for loiterers, then they have too many police. Someone obviously called this in. So who was it, and why were they so uncomfortable with a photographer's presence? (My bet is, US consulate intelligence attaché acting paranoid.)

How about the cops focus on the thousands of cars being stolen instead of some guy with a camera. Oh, wait, that's hard work and they wouldn't get to harass anybody.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

A professional photographer from Charlottetown, P.E.I., has been fined $230 for "loitering"  while he was taking pictures of Quebec City's iconic Château Frontenac hotel.

John Morris says he was standing on a sidewalk opposite the U.S. consulate near the famed hotel around noon on Tuesday, waiting for some clouds to arrive to get the perfect shot, when police officers approached him and told him to leave.

He said the officers only explained that he was loitering and issued the fine for it after he was put in the back of a police cruiser.

She said when the police officers arrived, they determined that the individual was breaking a municipal bylaw and asked him to provide his identity, but he refused, so they arrested him.

Quebec City's municipal bylaw says that is "prohibited for a person, without a reasonable motive … to loiter, wander or sleep in a street or a public space."

Florence Boucher Cossette, a criminal defence lawyer who has worked on loitering cases before, says the legal definition of the offence is unclear and is used arbitrarily by law enforcement.

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Oh my god

I think some of us USAers should go to there and take some pictures of the USA consulate. Still waiting on my passport to come in plus I'm lazy and probably won't do it. But some of you should. 😘

Ugh, also it's a 9 hour drive one way for me.

U.S. Consulate General Quebec City

Foreign consulate in Quebec City, Quebec

Address: 2 Pl. Terr. Dufferin, Québec, QC G1R 4T9, Canada

Hours: Opens 9 AM (Eastern timezone)

Phone: +1 418-692-2095