Is handing out tickets the right way to stop people from gathering?

EDMONTON (CITYNEWS) – Issuing fines for breaking COVID-19 restrictions on gatherings does very little to change people’s behaviours, according to a civil liberties group.

A report by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) found tickets handed out in Quebec, Ontario and Nova Scotia near the beginning of the pandemic hardly impacted people’s actions.

“Fining and enforcement is attractive because it’s fast,” said Abby Deschman of the CCLA. “It looks like it might work, but really it has very negative impacts.

“We have lived through this for eight months. We successfully confronted the first wave of COVID. Many jurisdictions did that without punitively fining their residents. We can do this again.”

This comes as Alberta introduces new gathering measures and bar curfews to curb rising COVID-19 case counts.

Police and health inspectors have increased their patrols since the rules came into effect Nov. 13 but have generally kept the ticket books closed.

Alberta has asked police chiefs across the province to enforce the new measures.

“I expect we’ll get more tickets,” said Supt. Ryan Ayliffe of the Calgary Police Service. “I don’t know what that number will look like. Basically we’re looking to connect to people though education and getting compliance through that route, as opposed to just pure enforcement.”

Concerns are also mounting over wildly disparate approaches to cracking down on those health measure violations from provincial governments across the country.

“Dr. Bonnie Henry in B.C. has said she won’t be recommending increased enforcement,” said Deschman. “Manitoba just announced that they are hiring private security guards to go out and complement the police bylaw officers.”

While every region and jurisdiction face their own concerns, Deschman thinks politicians would benefit from an outside perspective.

“Having those types of discussions nationally could be very helpful,” she said. “For someone who’s not directly facing the pressure from constituents to step back and say, ‘what is the evidence on enforcement?’”