In December 2020, five months after B.C. introduced financial penalties to anyone who violated its COVID-19 gathering restrictions, Nadine Podmoroff organized a protest against public health orders in Castlegar.
She set up two more in the following months, both in Nelson, and was issued tickets totalling $6,900. Prior to being ticketed, the threat of the fines weighed on her, but not enough to stop.
91裸聊视频淚 could not let that prevent me from doing what was right,91裸聊视频� she said in an email. 91裸聊视频淚 was a health care provider, and I was witnessing severe suffering of people, especially of our most vulnerable due to government mandates, and I couldn91裸聊视频檛 stay silent about it.91裸聊视频�
It turned out she didn91裸聊视频檛 have to worry.
Podmoroff never paid a cent. The three tickets were each stayed by Crown Counsel for not meeting the charge assessment standard, a two-part test that weighs how likely a conviction is and if so, if public interest requires prosecution.
Podmoroff91裸聊视频檚 tickets were among the 2,335 totalling $1.58 million handed out in B.C. between Aug. 21, 2020, when the fines came into place, and Oct. 29, 2021, the most recent data currently available.
The statistics, obtained by Black Press Media from the B.C. Attorney General91裸聊视频檚 office, present unclear answers to the effectiveness of public health enforcement tickets as well as how defensible they were when tested by the courts.
Marty Moore, a lawyer with Calgary-based Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms who represented Podmoroff, said he believed the tickets were a clear violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
91裸聊视频淎ny time the government is going to trample on a fundamental freedom, they have to justify that. But the right to protest outdoors was categorically prohibited under orders, I think, in kind of a casual manner.91裸聊视频�
Of the tickets handed out, 1,733 were given to individuals who refused to comply with provincial orders. Those $230 tickets totalled $398,590.
The next tier of fines included $575 tickets issued to 107 people who promoted or attended non-compliant events equalling $61,525, and eight tickets for failing to comply with travel restrictions for $4,600.
The most expensive violations were $2,300. Of those, 435 were given to owners or organizers who contravened the gatherings and events orders, which totalled just over $1 million. Fifty-one were also doled out for contraventions of the rules for restaurants and bars, totalling $117,300.
B.C. police also issued 223 tickets, for a total of $586,529, to people who were in contravention of the Federal Quarantine Act.
In dispute
Whereas Podmoroff91裸聊视频檚 tickets were stayed, other British Columbians had less luck in court.
A total of 689 were disputed, but the Attorney General91裸聊视频檚 office could not provided outcomes for tickets valued at less than $2,300. Meanwhile, 342 of the 486 most expensive tickets were challenged.
As of Feb. 17, 120 of those disputed tickets were still under Crown or court consideration. Fifty-five had been upheld as guilty, 48 were deemed not to be disputed (this usually happens when a defendant doesn91裸聊视频檛 appear for a scheduled hearing), and one was paid prior to the defendant91裸聊视频檚 appearance.
91裸聊视频淭his is serious, this is not a lark, this is not something we do lightly,91裸聊视频� Premier John Horgan after the province increased enforcement of the health orders. 91裸聊视频淭hose of us who do not want to obey the rules that the rest of us are following will have to pay the consequences.91裸聊视频�
But not everyone did. Ninety-eight tickets were stayed by the Crown, two were dismissed by judges, eight were dismissed due to a non-appearance in court by the prosecutor, three were found not guilty, one was cancelled by ICBC (which collects fines on behalf of the provincial and federal governments in B.C.) and six were withdrawn.
A precedent was set on March 19, 2021, when Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson ruled in the Supreme Court of B.C. that the .
Moore said that decision, specific to organized gatherings, led to Podmoroff91裸聊视频檚 tickets being dropped last December.
91裸聊视频淚t91裸聊视频檚 not a novel area of law really when it comes to restrictions on protests,91裸聊视频� he said. 91裸聊视频淚t91裸聊视频檚 obviously a Charter issue, and government restrictions on fundamental freedoms like the right to protest should never be imposed lightly or flippantly. Fear-based decisions that are not founded in fact can91裸聊视频檛 be justified as violations of people91裸聊视频檚 rights.91裸聊视频�
While the Charter does lay out rights such as freedom of peaceful assembly or association, those rights can be legally overturned. Section One of the Charter 91裸聊视频済uarantees the rights and freedoms set out in it subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.91裸聊视频�
Margot Young, a professor at the University of British Columbia91裸聊视频檚 Allard School of Law, says most Canadians don91裸聊视频檛 understand that Section One can allow governments to infringe on rights if it is in what a court decides as the public good.
91裸聊视频淭he government does things all the time that contravene our Charter rights, but are easily justified,91裸聊视频� says Young. 91裸聊视频淭he whole system of criminal justice is based on that. We detain people, we deprive them of liberty. We treat people differently under our laws all the time.
91裸聊视频淏ut the question is, is it a demonstrably justified breach of those things? And so in a public health emergency in a pandemic, with the healthcare system under crisis and threatening to fold on us, I just can91裸聊视频檛 imagine that a Section One defence will not be persuasive at an appeal court, which is where it matters.91裸聊视频�
That may be, but Moore says Charter challenges will continue even as provinces ease or end COVID-19 restrictions.
One of those came March 17, when the Justice Centre announced it was suing the province of B.C. for requiring vaccination as a condition for employment among some healthcare workers.
Moore said he believes similar cases will eventually be heard in Canada91裸聊视频檚 top court.
91裸聊视频淭hose things, I think, they all beg for higher court intervention and be addressed in that fashion.91裸聊视频�
91裸聊视频� with files from Ashley Wadhwani, Black Press Media
| tyler.harper@nelsonstar.com
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