Quebec gov’t collected millions in pandemic fines: report
Of the $67.9 million in tickets for pandemic infractions in Quebec, less than half have been paid out, with a 95% conviction rate.
La Belle province faces millions of dollars in unpaid lockdown tickets, amid lawsuits challenging their constitutionality.
Of the $67.9 million in tickets for pandemic infractions, less than half have been paid out, with a 95% conviction rate, reported CBC News.
Québec was the only province to mandate a province-wide curfew twice, let alone once.
The province imposed nighttime curfews under threat of $6,000 fines, once from January 9, 2021 through May 28, 2021, and then again from New Year's Eve until January 17, 2022.
BREAKING: Curfew protest in Quebec City Tonight.
— Alexa Lavoie (@ThevoiceAlexa) January 8, 2022
Everybody ticketed with 1558$ fines and some people have been arrested.
I was pushed away by police for recording and forced to show my papers.
Follow all the reports and support us at: https://t.co/sJH1IVqtus
.@RoyGuillaume13 pic.twitter.com/i9R84PiiJg
Health experts were divided on the effectiveness of curfews, amid scrutiny in the courts.
Dr. Horacio Arruda, the province’s then-director of public health during the pandemic lockdowns, defended them as necessary. “For me, a curfew is something that was used for war or things like that,” he told the state broadcaster. “But we had looked at what other countries did.
“France and other countries, and they used it and it was a success. So we added it to our toolbox.”
Meanwhile, the Legault government faced intense pushback on the second curfew, when a group of experts went public with their concerns.
“At best, the curfew is a spectacle,” the open letter said. “At worst, it is a punishment on individuals to mask the negligence and systemic inaction in managing the pandemic.”
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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A lawsuit later surfaced following the ticketing of a protester in Amos, Québec.
Though Judge Marie-France Beaulieu agreed that the curfews violated Charter rights, she ruled it was justified under the guise of public health. An appeal by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms will be heard next month.
Olivier Séguin, a lawyer for the Justice Centre, believes the lockdowns worked to contain the virus and “make an impression in the mind of the people.”
“Our pretension is that this aim was not allowed by the law,” he told CBC News.
A provincial Police Ethics Tribunal earlier clarified that all police were to enforce the law, reported Blacklock’s. “The main objective of the Code is to ensure better protection of citizens by developing high standards of service to the public.”
“Whether there were real consequences or not,” an adjudicator said, “the fact remains it encouraged people to distrust the government and could even have led to civil disobedience.”
Alex Dhaliwal
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Alex Dhaliwal is a Political Science graduate from the University of Calgary. He has actively written on relevant Canadian issues with several prominent interviews under his belt.
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COMMENTS
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Bruce Atchison commented 2025-03-04 20:00:34 -0500We all knew that the panic-demic wasn’t so severe as we were told it was. Many of us will NEVER forget the abuses governments did to us. It’s the government’s fault for jerking us around with ever-changing “science” regulations.
