More than two years after Quebec lifted most of its COVID-19 public health measures, the province has recovered just over a third of the $68 million it imposed in pandemic-related fines.
Quebec implemented some of the strictest public health measures in the country during this time and was the only province to impose a curfew on its residents. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, authorities have issued nearly 44,000 tickets for violations of the province’s public health law, including illegal gatherings, not wearing a mask and breaking the curfew.
The vast majority of these tickets were issued before the end of 2022 – with most COVID-19 restrictions having been lifted in the spring of that year.
However, two years later, the government is still trying to recover the fines.
As of June 30, the government had recovered $25.2 million, or about 37 percent of the total. The average amount owed per ticket is about $1,500.
Only 17% of offenders pleaded guilty or paid their fine without filing a plea, says Cathy Chenard, spokesperson for the Quebec Ministry of Justice.
Another 41% simply ignored the tickets and are at risk of being ordered to pay in default. Finally, 42% pleaded not guilty, and some of these cases are still being processed through the court system.
Caroline Veillette-Jackson, a lawyer with Rouyn-Noranda legal aid, believes that many people who received fines were motivated to contest them because they questioned the legality of public health measures.
“The level of protest is probably linked to the fact that it is a special, temporary law, which greatly restricted people’s freedom,” she explained.
The government does not expect to collect all of the $67.7 million in fines it imposed.
Some tickets could be withdrawn and some offenders acquitted, Chenard said in an email, while other cases have not yet been decided.
Little chance of success
But the odds are stacked against anyone who decides to fight their ticket. Chenard says the conviction rate for cases in court is about 95 percent. Still, many people have chosen to fight or even appeal their convictions, meaning some cases can drag on for years.
One of Veillette-Jackson’s clients, Sandra Plante, was among the few to be acquitted earlier this year. Plante was fined in April 2021 for organizing an illegal gathering of six adults. She didn’t deny breaking the rules, but a judge ruled in her favor because the police violated her rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms by entering her property without reasonable grounds to believe an offence had been committed.
Although he let Ms. Plante off the hook, the judge still used harsh language about her decision to throw a party in the middle of a pandemic, calling it “purely selfish” and “clearly morally reprehensible” behavior.
According to her lawyer, the case still proved an interesting point, even if her client flouted the rules. “It’s not because there were health measures that it gave them more power to enter the field or people’s homes,” she explained.
But this case was unusual.
Dylan Jones, a Montreal criminal lawyer, said many people who are fined don’t want to hire lawyers and incur additional costs. Instead, they represent themselves in court — usually without success.
He and Veillette-Jackson believe the wave of cases involving COVID-related fines has peaked. “Now it’s a matter of collecting the fines or finishing the last batch of cases,” Jones said.
Neither the Justice Department nor the Director of Public Prosecutions have provided the number of cases of people fighting pandemic-related tickets that are still before the courts.
Punitive approach in Quebec
Quebec took a punitive approach to enforcing public health measures early in the pandemic. A report from the Canadian Civil Liberties Association found that as of June 2020, Quebec had issued 77% of the fines issued across Canada to that date.
Last February, a Quebec judge upheld the legality of the province’s pandemic curfews, arguably the government’s most controversial public health measure. Justice Marie-France Beaulieu found that the curfews, imposed twice in 2021 and 2022, did indeed violate Charter rights, but that the violations were justified given the public health context.
That decision is under appeal. Olivier Séguin, a lawyer with the Centre for Justice for Constitutional Freedoms who is representing the defendant in the case, said public health officials have acknowledged that part of the goal of the curfew is to send a message about the importance of following the rules. And that goal goes beyond the bounds of the provincial public health act, Séguin said.
If the Quebec Superior Court overturns the lower court’s decision, Séguin argued, the government should refund all the fines people paid for breaking the curfew.