Pandemic fines top $13 million, study says
Report warns against a return of fines and charges should a second COVID wave prompt new lockdown
TORONTO — Authorities in some provinces ramped up often arbitrary law enforcement to help curtail the COVID-19 pandemic rather than rely on a purely public health approach, according to a report out Wednesday.
The main problem, the report finds, is that marginalized or other vulnerable groups tended to bear the brunt of police and bylaw action.
“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 Canadian Civil Liberties Association said in a statement. “Somehow a public health crisis has been twisted into a public order crisis.”
Provinces across the country issued emergency orders with hefty penalties for violations in March, including closures of public spaces and physical distancing measures. Ticketing soon followed.
In one example cited in the report, a man walking his dog in Ottawa was fined $880 for standing in the wrong place. A bylaw officer in the city also tackled a man walking through a park with his daughter. He ended up with a bruised lip and a fine of more than $2,000.
One woman with her baby in Aurora, Ont., stepped off a park path to let others pass and was ticketed $880, prompting Premier Doug Ford to say the officers “could have used a little bit different judgment.”
According to the study by the association and the Policing the Pandemic Mapping Project cofounded at the universities of Toronto and Ottawa, police and bylaw officers issued at least 10,000 tickets or charges related to the pandemic between April 1 and June 15.
The value of the fines was more than $13 million.
Quebec accounted for 77 per cent of the reported fines, while Ontario saw 18 per cent and Nova Scotia three per cent.
The report warns against a return to law-enforcement stops, searches and charges should a second COVID wave prompt a reprise of the lockdown. Punitive measures, it says, are simply counterproductive.