A dissenting Québec constable was reprimanded for not ticketing residents under the province’s COVID curfew law.

Constable Maxime Ouimet, a veteran policeman, shared a protest message to Facebook that received thousands of shares — and the ire of the provincial Police Ethics Tribunal.

An adjudicator says he breached the police Code Of Ethics, and cannot serve in law enforcement for one year as punishment.

Montreal, Quebec

Curfew Disobedience, hundreds of police officers ready to arrest all the protesters for being outside their residence past 10pm.

All this paid for by the taxpayers!

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— Alexandra Lavoie (@ThevoiceAlexa) January 10, 2022

In a note presented to the Tribunal, evidence showed Constable Ouimet “did not intend to perform his duties since he disagreed with government health mandates.”

He posted several disagreeable Facebook messages on pandemic lockdowns and mandates, and made clear he would not enforce Québec’s curfew, reported Blacklock’s. The province imposed nighttime curfews under threat of $6,000 fines.

“According to Ouimet this went against his personal values and that he wanted to help and support these people, not ‘destroy’ them,” wrote Isabelle Coté, the adjudicator in the case. 

“The Constable did not act on a whim,” ruled Coté. “He had time to think about it and posted his message more than once.”

BREAKING: Curfew protest in Quebec City Tonight.

Everybody ticketed with 1558$ fines and some people have been arrested.

I was pushed away by police for recording and forced to show my papers.

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— Alexandra Lavoie (@ThevoiceAlexa) January 8, 2022

The Tribunal clarified that all police must enforce the law, dutifully. “The main objective of the Code is to ensure better protection of citizens by developing high standards of service to the public.” Ouimet earlier quit his job and was absent for all hearings into his dissent. 

“Whether there were real consequences or not,” said Coté, “the fact remains it encouraged people to distrust the government and could even have led to civil disobedience.”

Québec had the highest death rate of any province despite hosting the strictest mandates nationwide. Approximately 232 per 100,000 people died from COVID, followed by Manitoba (177), Saskatchewan (171), and Alberta (141).

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