(Montreal) People who made, bought or used fake vaccine passports won’t get away with it with a slap on the wrist.
Posted at 2:26 p.m.
The Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP) has just closed the door to the two ways of avoidance that the possible defendants in this type of offense could have tried to use.
The DPCP has thus instructed its prosecutors, who have the power to go to these two alternative correctional means, not to do so for offenses related to false vaccine passports.
These accused will therefore not be eligible for the “Non-judicial treatment program for certain criminal offenses committed by adults” or the “General alternative measures program for adults”.
A program for isolated misconduct
The Non-Courtary Treatment Program can be used for a variety of criminal offences, such as forged passports, forging a false document, or using, possessing or trafficking a forged document. .
This program was created in recognition that “some illegal behavior is often only an isolated act of conduct on the part of a citizen that does not significantly disrupt the social order or compromise the fundamental values of society. It also takes into consideration “the inconveniences that criminal prosecutions may cause to victims and witnesses”.
The decision to use this program rests with the prosecutors. When used, it allows an accused to avoid being brought before the Court and will instead receive a warning letter or notice.
Simple warning letter or notice
The warning letter indicates that a complaint has been made about the offender and that there is sufficient evidence to charge them with a criminal offence, but that their case will not be prosecuted before the Court and, therefore, that he will not have a criminal record.
The notice, meanwhile, is used when the offender has a reimbursement order and exceeds the deadlines to fulfill this obligation, a letter informing him that “if he does not comply quickly, an information will be filed “.
Alternative measures
The Alternative Measures Program, on the other hand, is the use, as its name suggests, of alternative measures such as community service, restitution, treatment, counselling, mediation, training and and so on. Here too, it is the prosecution that has the power to go in this direction, and this, in cases where the accused is not eligible for the non-judicial treatment program for certain criminal offences.
With this program, the offender avoids having to go to court and if he completes the alternative measures agreed upon, the prosecutor “then asks the court to dismiss the charge”.
Deterrence and denunciation
The DPCP justifies this directive by recalling that “the global pandemic has led the government to maintain Quebec in a state of health emergency for almost two years now” and that this measure was taken because a “serious threat to health of the population, actual or imminent” required the application of certain measures to protect the health of the population. He notes that the obligation to vaccinate to participate in certain activities “is part of the arsenal of measures taken to protect the health of the population”.
Consequently, “offenses related to false vaccine passports are likely to pose a threat to the health of the population” and it is therefore “in the public interest to emphasize the objectives of deterrence and general denunciation” and that offenses related to the making or use of a false vaccine passport “should not be subject to non-judicial treatment or an alternative measure”.