‘Happy Birthday’ can turn into a $1,546 fine
A 20- second birthday tune can sour your day very quickly during the COVID-19 pandemic. A Montreal woman was promised a $ 1,546 fine by police after a few of her friends unexpectedly drove up her street and wished her a happy birthday … from their cars, according a report by La Presse.
“I find it ridiculous, Mélissa Leblanc told the publication. I understand the gravity of the situation. It’s been four weeks since I’ve left home. I even have my groceries delivered. My intention was never to go against the measures. I know the police have their arms full, but they didn’t listen to me at all and attacked me like I was a criminal.”
It was Leblanc’s birthday this weekend, but she didn’t plan on celebrating with friends due to strict social distancing orders from the Quebec government.
Little did she know that her friends had taken it upon themselves to briefly highlight the event from a distance.
A 20- second video shared with La Presse shows a row of about nine cars parked a few metres from each other across the street from her house. Around each vehicle, one to three people sing “Happy Birthday” to her while she stands at the entrance of her house.
“It was a surprise. They had signs and stayed in their car or stood right by their car doors. They honked as if they were at a wedding, went around the block and came back to my house to sing ‘ Happy birthday’ to me, Mélissa Leblanc told La Presse. “I stood in my door frame and filmed them. I don’t see what’s wrong.”
Roughly 10 minutes after the brief serenade, Montreal police came knocking at her door to tell her that she should expect a $ 1,546 fine by mail in the next few days.
The reason: troubling the peace and disregarding social distancing.
She says they also threatened her with six months to one year of prison if they had to intervene at her home again.
“I told them that everyone had stayed away from each other, but they didn’t want to watch my videos or even listen to me,” the Montrealer said, as quoted by La Presse.
Both Montreal’s municipal administration as well and the provincial government have decided to crack the whip on residents disregarding public health orders aimed at combating the spread of COVID-19.
Canada’s second- biggest city has become the country’s epicentre of the pandemic, with roughly one-quarter of all confirmed COVID-19 cases.
The Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) has doled out nearly 70 fines worth $ 1,546 to people disregarding social distancing. They also handed out an additional 73 general offence reports that will be submitted to provincial prosecutors, according to TVA Nouvelles news station. Twelve of those weekend fines were handed out to a group of soccer players who were “visibly disregarding” social distancing rules in one of the city’s numerous parks, La Presse also reported Monday morning, citing police sources.
Questioned by National Post, the SPVM refused to comment on specific cases.
Last week, the SPVM had told National Post that officers were seeing repeat offenders when it came to disregarding public health orders on social distancing.
Thus, they would be switching from the carrot to the stick.
“For the past 14 days, we have been focused on spreading awareness. When we saw groups that didn’t respect public health orders, we went and warned them to break it up. Now, if a group is caught red- handed, we’re going to write them up,” said Inspector André Durocher.