Heartless Machine
Governments were viciously punitive. We got fined for sitting on park benches.
We know that congregations were forbidden from gathering in houses of worship. What else was going on early in the pandemic?
A 99-page report tells us Toronto residents were being fined staggering amounts of money for resting on park benches. The COVID era was viciously punitive. Governments didn’t attempt to influence our behaviour with fines of $50 or $100. From the outset, the penalties were off-the-scale disproportionate.
The fine for being less than two metres (six feet) distant from someone in a Toronto park was $1,000. Some people received $750 fines for using park benches that were off-limits yet not clearly marked as such.
By comparison, the current maximum fine for not leashing your dog in a Toronto park is $365. Unleashed dogs can be large and aggressive. They can attack humans and other dogs, causing grave, life-altering injuries. The veterinary bills following such an encounter can be exorbitant. Yet irresponsible dog owners have never been at risk of a $1,000 fine.
Getting back to that 99-page report, it tells us a woman (who’d just lost her job) fell while walking in a park with her husband. They subsequently sat on a bench so she could recover. For that unspeakable crime both of them received $750 tickets - for a grand total of $1760 in fines and fees.
Despite genuine confusion about what was permitted and what was forbidden, two women were likewise ticketed for drinking coffee together at a picnic table:
As the report observes, “People who were unfortunate enough to get one of these tickets now had to pay a steep fine in addition to dealing with the challenges of the pandemic” (my italics).
The process of resolving those fines was its own special nightmare, the report explains, since the directions printed on the back of the tickets no longer applied. Pandemic measures had shut down the courts. Along with information hotlines and email. (“At this time, Toronto Court Services will not be responding to email or answering phone calls,” the city’s website declared in April 2020.)
The government was not our friend during COVID. It was cruel. It was thuggish. It was predatory. It was a heartless machine that crushed people.
I am so glad I was not living in Toronto at the time. Toronto police have always been thuggish, by the way! But how ridiculous and upsetting would it be to get a ticket for having a coffee in the park - full of fresh air!
What is even worse, many paid those fines, but many more pushed back and the fines were forgiven.
A courageous young couple in Hamilton who ran a restaurant and refused to check passports incurred (if I remember correctly) $50,000 in fines!
The city called them in to discuss these fines and said they would reduce to $400 is they would plead guilty to not wearing masks. They refused and said we’ll go to trial. The city eventually dropped every charge!