Winnipegger loses court fight to quash ticket for attending People's Party rally amid pandemic restrictions
CBC
A Winnipeg man has lost his bid to have a judge quash a $1,296 fine he received after attending a rally for People's Party of Canada Leader Maxime Bernier in Winnipeg three years ago in contravention of COVID-19 public health restrictions.
Todd Dube, a Winnipeg business owner and a founding member of the PPC, has one year to pay the ticket he got for attending Bernier's "Mad Max" rally in Winnipeg in 2021, Manitoba provincial court Judge Weldon Klassen ruled during a hearing Wednesday.
Defence lawyer Kyle Morgan, who called both Dube and Bernier to testify, failed to persuade Klassen that Dube's attendance at the rally should be considered an exceptional circumstance related to his Charter rights, including the right to free speech and free assembly.
"When I look at the regulations and the court precedent on what would constitute exceptional circumstances, it would have to be something unforeseen, something beyond the individual's control that contributed to the offence occurring," Judge Klassen said. "There's no evidence."
Dube was among a dozen people ticketed weeks after attending a rally Bernier was slated to attend at the outdoor CN Stage at The Forks, a national historic site in Winnipeg, on June 12, 2021, during the lead-up to the fall federal election.
Police photographed Dube that day and weeks later served him with the fine for violating provincial public health orders that limited gatherings to no more than five people at the time, court heard Wednesday.
Dube argued he was targeted due to his political affiliation with the People's Party and that the laws were arbitrarily enforced.
"Seems to be an unequal application of the law at the very least, and political persecution," Dube told court.
Bernier announced ahead of the rally that he was coming to Manitoba.
He was slated to be the keynote speaker at the June 12 rally, but was arrested by RCMP the day before after a rally in St-Pierre-Jolys, south of Winnipeg. He was charged under the Public Health Act for assembling in a gathering at an outdoor public place and for failing to self-isolate once he got to Manitoba, RCMP said at the time.
Bernier was released from custody in the early hours of June 12 and left the province, ahead of the Winnipeg rally.
Last year, Bernier admitted to violating public health orders in in connection with his 2021 Manitoba visits and was ordered to pay $2,000 in fines.
An investigator with Manitoba Justice's public safety investigation unit — whose members were redeployed to help enforce pandemic public health orders at the height of the pandemic — testified Wednesday that he and another investigator took photos of Dube and others at the June 12 Winnipeg rally.
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This First Person column is the experience of Andrew Stetson, a writer and storyteller in P.E.I. For more information about CBC's First Person stories, please see the FAQ.
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