Trevor Marr (pictured left) was issued a $1200 ticket under the Public Health Act after getting off a C-train and noticing a protest rally on December 19 in downtown Calgary. After noticing the large crowd, Mr. Marr decided to make a spur of the moment decision and go and listen. Says Mr. Marr, “I agreed with what the Speaker was saying, the restrictions resembled Communist China more than freedom-of-speech-Canada. It felt good to live in a Democracy where I thought we were free to protest!”
Calgary Police officers subsequently ticketed Mr. Marr $1200 under the Public Health Act, for allegedly contravening an order of the Medical Officer of Health. On February 25, 2021, the Justice Centre was advised that the Crown was withdrawing the ticket.
“Public health officials are not the supreme law of the land – the Constitution is,” noted Jay Cameron, Litigation Director for the Justice Centre. “A significant portion of the arbitrary and confusing public health orders which have so oppressed Canadian society are, on their face, unconstitutional and cannot be justified. As a result, many of the tickets issued for the supposed violation of such orders will never be prosecuted. We expect the mass withdrawal of Covid tickets to continue as prosecutors across the country correctly decide to stay charges.”
