HALIFAX -- Many Maritimers may have spent a quiet weekend at home over the Easter break, but police were busy handing out dozens of tickets for failing to obey public health directives.
More than 100 people in the province were ticketed over the long weekend.
In Nova Scotia, RCMP charged 38 people for offences related to COVID-19, including failure to maintain physical distance and failure to self-isolate.
“To date the RCMP have charged a total of 116 people with offences related to the current provincial state of emergency in Nova Scotia,” says Cpl. Lisa Croteau of the Nova Scotia RCMP.
Halifax Regional Police issued 32 tickets for violations of Nova Scotia’s Health Protection and Emergency Management acts.
Const. John MacLeod says most of the infractions involved people entering public parks and other spaces that have been closed by the province.
“We still move ahead with what we hope to accomplish with this, through education and conversations, however, when we need to, we may have to move to an enforcement piece, if our conversations don’t work,” says MacLeod.
Since Nova Scotia declared a state of emergency on March 22, Halifax Regional Police have given out 110 tickets.
In Pictou County, New Glasgow Regional Police ticketed five men for failing to social distance in two separate incidents on Sunday.
Police in Cape Breton were kept occupied with enforcement over the long weekend as well.
Cape Breton Regional Police issued 42 summary offence tickets over the four-day period. Officers received numerous complaints about group gatherings being held and, as a result, charged 26 people at six different residences for failing to maintain physical distancing.
A Marine Atlantic ferry passenger who arrived in Cape Breton from Newfoundland and Labrador was also charged for failing to self-isolate upon entering Nova Scotia. When officers determined the individual hadn’t confirmed a place to stay in the area, they sent them on the ferry back to Newfoundland.
Cape Breton Regional Police have issued a total of 66 tickets since the state of emergency was declared last month.
In New Brunswick, officials with the Fredericton Police Force, Saint John Police Force, and New Brunswick RCMP all declined to release enforcement figures to CTV News.
A spokesperson with the Fredericton Police Force would only say in an email that tickets have been issued in the city.
“We will continue to issue tickets when and where appropriate,” writes Alycia Bartlett. “We are still focused on encouraging the public to follow the advice and instructions of the chief medical officer of health.”
Balancing rights with enforcement
For one Halifax-based attorney, there are concerns about balancing the rights of Maritimers under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms with the need to enforce rules to ensure public health and safety.
David Fraser says the laws being used during the state of emergency are also somewhat unclear.
“There’s nothing in the rules related to going for a drive to clear your head,” he says. “There’s [also] nothing in the rules related to leaving your neighbourhood.”
Both are things Nova Scotia’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Robert Strang, has advised against.
Fraser says, while the need to follow public health directives is important, those directives must be clear and well-understood.
“The Health Protection Act order requires social distancing for everybody unless they’re exempt,” he says. “But it doesn’t have a same-household exemption.”
“So a parent changing a baby’s diaper is technically violating the law and could be subject to a $1,000 fine,” Fraser adds. “That seems absurd, and I think most people understand that there is a family exception.”
Fraser adds he is also “overwhelmingly concerned” about the potential for authorities to target racialized and marginalized populations.
“We have a track record in Nova Scotia of … over-policing of minority communities, marginalized communities, and racialized communities,” he says.
“So if the police are handing out tickets hand over fist, as they’ve been ordered to by the minister of justice, are they doing that in a way that’s discriminatory?”
He says the only way to know for sure is to either keep track of the data, or have checks in place to prevent that from happening.
When it comes to gathering that kind of information, there is now a new website aiming to do just that. CovidCops902.com was created by a team of people concerned about the potential for minorities to be targeted by police for COVID-19 infractions.
Halifax activist and poet El Jones reached out to Rebecca Faria to help create the site, using Faria’s “Hollaback” website as a template.
“Hollaback” was created a number of years ago as a community-based reporting mechanism to end street harassment in Halifax.
Jones wanted to create the same kind of tool during the pandemic.
“When we’re in a state of emergency, there’s always a question of what happens to our rights,” Jones says.
Jones says while it’s essential for everyone to follow public health directives, she also wants to track exactly what is occurring in the community.
“This is about getting a community picture and about what communities are saying about what this looks like at this time.”
Reports on the site so far describe incidents in which the homeless and youth are being approached for COVID-19 infractions.
“A mix between policing, as in being approached by the actual police, and perhaps more disturbing is the neighborhood policing, which tends to be racial,” she says.
Jones is encouraging Nova Scotians to report any COVID-19-related enforcements on the site.
Both Jones and Fraser wonder how many people who receive individual fines -- which range from almost $700 to $1000 -- will be able to pay them, considering the current state of the economy.
Fraser says with a court system that is already backlogged because of COVID-19 restrictions, the potential that some of these tickets could end up contested in court, could make that situation worse.
