Quebec had most fines for distance violations: report
Quebecers received the most and costliest fines in the country for violating public health orders issued during the COVID -19 pandemic, a new report has concluded.
The report is called Stay off the Grass: COVID-19 and Law Enforcement in Canada, and was published by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA). It showed Quebec accounted for 77 per cent of the reported fines in the country, with Ontario accounting for 18 per cent and Nova Scotia three per cent. Quebec also issued the costliest fines in the country.
“This report proves that we’ve got an ugly ticketing pandemic, replete with COVID carding and racial profiling, in central and eastern Canada,” Michael Bryant, executive director of the CCLA, said in a statement. “Somehow a public health crisis has been twisted into a public order crisis.”
In Quebec, the fines are most often $1,546, compared with $880 in Ontario and $697.50 in Nova Scotia. Quebec collected more than $10 million in fines, which was more than four times what was collected in Ontario. Only $424,429 was collected in Nova Scotia.
The report criticized provincial authorities for emphasizing law enforcement solutions rather than public education to ensure people respected distances deemed safe enough to prevent the spread of the virus.
“Trying to police our way out of this pandemic is unimaginative, sometimes unconstitutional, and ineffective,” the report stated. “When rules don’t make sense, people stop listening to those in authority. Many emergency orders were vague and overly broad, so much so that several were in our view clearly unconstitutional.”
The CCLA invited people who were ticketed to share their experiences with the organization. The overwhelming majority said they were trying to follow the orders but were ticketed for vague technicalities. They described having to walk closer to a friend for a few seconds to navigate a busy narrow street corner, or being ticketed when a police officer judged that the stranger walking behind them on a park path came too close.
One person who works with vulnerable Indigenous people in Montreal reported feeling treated unfairly by police when they issued a fine while that person was doing outreach.
“(Police) continued to proceed with the fine and criminal charge despite me identifying myself as a street worker,” said the person, who was not identified in the report. “They refused to allow me to speak with the Indigenous police liaison, handcuffed me, searched me, and detained me in the police car.”
The report found marginalized and other vulnerable groups bore the brunt of police and bylaw action.
Blacks and other racialized communities, people in same-sex relationships and young people, who often live with roommates, appeared to be targeted the most. In Quebec, several members of the Jewish community said they felt they had been specifically targeted because of their religion.
The report found that not all jurisdictions relied on law enforcement to ensure the respect of public health orders.
In British Columbia, for example, physical distancing was a public health recommendation rather than a legal requirement and police and bylaw officers were not permitted to enforce public health orders. Instead, the government used law enforcement to help focus on education and public health support.