Crown threatens criminal charges against illegally opened Barbershop & Haberdashery

By Tamara Ugolini
|
February 03, 2021

Fight The Fines

Reporting on and fighting the pandemic fines.

Kyle Thomson originally came to Rebel News through our portal at iWillOpen.com, an initiative to give small businesses the confidence to stay afloat amid unprecedented and unscientific government shut down(s). Kyle owns Park Provisioners Barbershop & Haberdashery in Belleville, Ont. When he recently decided to open his business in defiance of the sweeping provincial lockdown mandate, he was met with the full force of the law.

Kyle was issued two tickets and a summons to court for the scandalous act of opening his business to customers wanting and willing to support him. After this happened, he submitted his offences to our sister portal at FightTheFines.com.

Despite longing to remain open, with a large community ready to support him, the Crown brought down the hammer, and ordered an emergency injunction against Kyle’s business — threatening to shut him down completely for the remainder of the emergency order!

We found out that the Crown can order this without providing notice to the business owners. That didn’t happen in Kyle’s case — they gave him fair warning and time to respond — but Kyle wants to stay fully open. And is he really a criminal for wanting that?

For now, as per the Crown, Kyle must abide by the restrictions and offer curbside pick up only. But this only pertains to the small section of his shop that is retail. What about the other half — how can a barber offer curbside pick up? With so much economic uncertainty, who knows what the future holds for Kyle’s shop, and for his employees.

Procedurally, it’s unbelievable that courts can get away with ordering these injunctions without notice to the owners. But here we are, in an apparently free and democratic society, with business owners being threatened with criminal prosecution for simply trying to stay afloat.

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