Refusing to wear a face covering to enter the courthouse, the well-known opponent of sanitary measures, François Amalega Bitondo, was sentenced on Friday – in his absence. He was fined $1,000 for violating curfew in January 2021.
The 43-year-old man presented himself Friday morning at the Montreal courthouse but was refused access because he did not want to wear a face covering, which has been mandatory to enter since the start of the pandemic.
It was the day scheduled for his trial.
Made aware of this situation, Justice of the Peace Pierre-David Cyr noted that the man is well aware of the rules and that he could have agreed to an appearance by the Teams videoconferencing system, in the comfort of his salon. “It has already been done and it would have accepted,” he said in the courtroom, but noted that he chose not to appear in the courtroom instead, without sending a message. .
The trial therefore proceeded without him.
A police officer testified that on January 9, 2021, a demonstration took place in Montreal to denounce the curfew in effect at that time.
Waving a Quebec flag, François Amalega Bitondo was at the head of the march that had started at the Mont-Royal metro station. Shortly after 8 p.m., the time marking the start of the curfew at that time, the police were ordered to distribute tickets.
François Amalega Bitondo received his around 8:50 p.m., the delay having been explained by the policeman as follows: he did not want to cooperate, nor identify himself and even lay down on the ground. He finally declined his identity and showed his driver’s license.
The judge therefore found him guilty and sentenced him to a fine of $1,000, in addition to $500 in costs.
This is not the first conviction of the man who accumulates offenses for non-compliance with sanitary measures and thus sees his overall bill increase.
For example, on February 14, 2021, François Amalega Bitondo went on his own initiative to a police station to let the police know that he was not respecting the curfew. He said he wanted to be detained in protest. He compared the health measures of the Quebec government to Hitler’s regime and filmed the entire intervention, is it written in the offense report.
For this, he was also fined $1,000 plus costs.